Vietnam: What are the eligibility requirements for providing e-invoice services?

Vietnam: What are the eligibility requirements for providing e-invoice services? (Illustrative image)

According to Clause 22 of the Draft Decree on invoices and records, e-invoice service providers in Vietnam must meet the following eligibility requirements:

1. The e-invoice service provider must have experience in developing information technology solutions and electronic data exchange solutions between organizations, specifically:

- Have at least 5 years of experience in the field of information technology.

- Have deployed information technology systems and applications for at least 10 organizations.

- Have implemented electronic data exchange systems between branches of the enterprise or between various organizations.

2. The e-invoice service provider must have a guarantee commitment from a legally operating credit institution in Vietnam, with a value of over 5 billion VND to address risks and compensate for damages that may occur during the service provision.

3. The e-invoice service provider must have a technical staff team ensuring service provision. To be specific:

- Have at least 20 technical staff with university degrees in information technology, among whom there should be staff with practical experience in network administration and database management.

- Have technical staff who is responsible for regularly monitoring and checking 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to maintain the stable operation of the electronic data exchange system and support users of e-invoice services.

4. The e-invoice service provider must have a technical equipment system ensuring service provision, specifically:

- The technical equipment system must ensure service provision to authorities, organizations, and individuals using e-invoices and ensure safe connection with the Electronic Portal of the General Department of Taxation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except during maintenance. Maintenance time must not exceed 2% of the total service provision hours in a year; be capable of providing services through various user devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones.

- The technical equipment system must ensure the capability to detect, warn, and prevent unauthorized access, and cyber-attacks to ensure the security and integrity of data exchanges between participating parties.

- The technical equipment system have procedures for data backup, online data backup, and data recovery; ensure the ability to recover data from the point the electronic data exchange system encountered an issue. Store electronic records during the time the transaction is not completed with the requirement that the original electronic data message must be stored on the system and accessed online. Electronic transaction logs must be stored according to accounting laws from the time the transaction is successfully executed. Ensure online retrieval of stored information in the transaction logs during the storage period.

- The technical equipment system must have a backup technical equipment system located at a backup center at least 20 km away from the main data center, ready to operate when the main system encounters issues.

- The connection of e-invoice data exchange with the tax authority must meet the requirements:

+ Connect with the tax authority through a dedicated leased channel or MPLS VPN Layer 3 channel, including 1 main transmission channel and 2 backup transmission channels. Each transmission channel must have a minimum bandwidth of 10 Mbps.

+ Use Web Service or Message Queue (MQ) with encryption as a method for connection.

+ Use the SOAP protocol to package and transmit data.

More details can be found in the Draft Decree on invoices and records.

Thuy Tram

>> CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE IN VIETNAMESE