Amendment of regulations on electronic invoices

The Draft Decree amending Decree 123/ND-CP has supplemented and amended regulations on principles of creating, managing and using invoices and documents.

Supplementing principles for preparing electronic documents for casino business activities and prize-wining electronic games

In the draft submission on the issuance of the Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP dated October 19, 2020 on invoices and supporting documents sent to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance, it is stated that, regarding the principles of issuance, management, and use of invoices and supporting documents as stipulated in Article 4 of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP, based on the synthesis of opinions, the receipt of opinions from the State Bank, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and after reviewing, a number of contents of Article 4 have been amended and supplemented. Accordingly, regarding the principle of issuing invoices, it is basically maintained as stipulated in the current Decree and supplemented with "cases of issuing adjustment or replacement invoices as prescribed in Article 19 of this Decree".

The draft Decree supplements in Clause 6 the provisions on the use of electronic invoice databases to implement measures to encourage consumers to request invoices when purchasing goods and services. At the same time, Clause 7 is amended and supplemented to allow individual businesses operating on e-commerce platforms, if they have authorized the platform owner to pay taxes as prescribed in Decree 91/2022/ND-CP, to authorize the platform to issue invoices to the buyer. At the request of the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province, the draft has also supplemented Clause 9, stipulating electronic documents that integrate receipt fees and invoices in the same electronic format for the convenience of buyers of goods and services and to facilitate the implementation of digital transformation as proposed by the locality.

The draft supplements Clause 10, stipulating the principle of issuing electronic documents for casino and prize-winning electronic game business activities. Specifically: enterprises with casino and prize-winning electronic game business activities must issue electronic documents and transfer data to the Tax Authority according to Form No. 01/TH-DT as prescribed in this Decree to record the amount of money received from exchanging conventional currency for players at the counter, at the gaming table, and the amount of money collected at the prize-winning electronic game machine minus the amount exchanged for players due to players winning prizes or players not using all of it on the day of determining revenue at the same time as transferring electronic invoice data. The revenue determination day is the period from 00:00 to 23:59 of the same day."

Removing regulations on invoice use for manufacturing enterprises

The latest draft proposes amendments to Article 5 of the Decree on prohibited acts related to invoices and supporting documents. According to the Ministry of Finance, the current Clause 1 of Article 5 does not explicitly prohibit tax officials from failing to submit electronic invoice and supporting document data to the tax authority as required. Meanwhile, Article 30 of Decree No. 125/2020/ND-CP dated October 19, 2020, which stipulates administrative penalties for tax and invoice violations, includes provisions on penalties for violations related to the submission of electronic invoice data. Therefore, Clause 1 of Article 5 of the draft decree adds a provision prohibiting the failure to submit electronic invoice and supporting document data to the tax authority as required. Additionally, the act of "falsifying invoices or supporting documents for unlawful purposes" is explicitly designated as a violation.

Furthermore, the draft also amends and supplements Article 8 of Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP, which regulates types of invoices. The Ministry of Finance noted that Article 26 of Government Decree No. 35/2022/ND-CP dated May 28, 2022, has specific provisions applicable to export processing zones and export processing enterprises (EPPs), allowing EPPs, in addition to their processing activities, to engage in the sale or liquidation of used assets and goods within the domestic market as prescribed by investment laws and other relevant laws; other business activities as prescribed by investment laws, enterprise laws, and other relevant laws; and the sale of goods to the domestic market. However, Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP only stipulates those organizations and individual in non-tariff zones (including EPPs) use sales invoices and the type of invoice "For organizations and individuals in non-tariff zones," without providing provisions for the type of invoice when EPPs engage in activities other than processing as stipulated in Decree No. 35/2022/ND-CP.

During the implementation of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP, some enterprises raised difficulties regarding the fact that they are currently required to use two types of invoices for exporting goods: a commercial invoice (which is prepared according to international practices and is part of the customs declaration dossier as prescribed by customs law) and a sales invoice/electronic VAT invoice (which is registered for use with the tax authority and has data transferred to the tax authority), whereas previously, enterprises only used commercial invoices. Therefore, enterprises have proposed using only one type of invoice for exporting goods; and amendments are needed to the provisions on electronic invoices for the sale of public assets to align with the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets and its implementing decrees.

Based on these issues, the draft decree proposes amendments to: supplement provisions on the use of invoices when export processing enterprises engage in activities other than processing; supplement provisions on electronic commercial invoices for exporting goods and providing services abroad; and finalize provisions on invoices for the sale of public assets to align with the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets and its implementing decrees.