Applying new technology, preventing the fraud of electronic invoice

	Quickly implementing electronic invoice for business households
	Prime Minister: Electronic invoice is an important milestone in digital transformation
	Only two petroleum businesses have adopted electronic invoicing after each sale

Ceremony to announce the implementation of "Database analysis and electronic invoice management system of the General Department of Taxation, April 24, 2023.

The Tax Department received and processed nearly 5.8 billion e-invoices

According to statistics from the General Department of Taxation, from implementation to November 30, 2023, the Tax agency has received and processed nearly 5.8 billion e-invoices, of which 1.7 billion were invoices with codes, more than 4 1 billion invoices without code.

E-invoices with tax agency codes created from cash registers will also be deployed nationwide from December 15, 2022. This is a solution that provides invoices connected to the Tax authority to manage the seller's real revenue. Since its implementation, more than 37.5 thousand businesses and individuals have registered to use e-invoices with the tax agency's code created from cash registers, reaching 88.6% of the tax sector's plan. The number of e-invoices initiated from the received cash register is more than 72.8 million invoices with a total tax amount on invoice information of 4.2 trillion VND.

Regarding the implementation of e-invoices for petroleum business activities, implementing the Government's direction in Official Dispatch No. 1123/CD-TTg dated November 18, 2023, the Ministry of Finance issued Directive No. 04/CT- BTC dated November 24, 2023 that requested the Heads of Tax authorities at all levels to strengthen the management and use of e-invoices to contribute to promoting national digital transformation. At the same time, there is Official Dispatch No. 13348/BTC-TCT dated December 4, 2023 sent to the Chairman of the People's Committee of the provinces and municipal cities requesting attention to direct and coordinate closely and regularly with the Ministry of Finance in tax management in general and implementation of e-invoices for the petroleum retail business in particular, promptly handling difficulties and obstacles during the implementation process.

According to statistics, the whole country has about 17.5 thousand gasoline and oil retail stores, including 6,630 stores (accounting for 39%) of major petroleum businesses and 10,819 stores (accounting for 61%) of petrol and oil distributors, petrol and oil retail agents, and petrol and oil retail franchisees. Many tax departments have proactively advised the People's Committees of provinces and cities to issue detailed implementation plans associated with each locality, each enterprise, and petroleum retail store.

As a result, up to now, Vietnam Petroleum Group (accounting for about 52% of the country's petroleum market share) and Ho Chi Minh City Petroleum Company Limited (accounting for about 7% of the market share) have issued e-invoices after each time of sale about over 2.7 thousand stores. General Corporation of Military Petroleum also actively accelerated the progress in December 2023 to deploy at all petrol stations in Hanoi and Thanh Hoa province. Similarly, Vietnam Oil Corporation determined solutions to direct member companies and stores in localities to urgently follow the direction of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Finance, and the General Department of Taxation.

Apply technology to detect chains of businesses with high risk of false invoices

The implementation of electronic invoices is a major reform step in tax management, not only convenient but also helps reduce costs for businesses. However, in recent times, some individuals and organizations have deliberately taken advantage of the issuance and use of e-invoices to fake, buy and sell invoices for illegal profit.

To prevent e-invoice fraud and prevent loss of state budget revenue, on April 12, 2023, the Ministry of Finance issued Official Dispatch No. 01/CD-BTC directing Tax agencies at all levels to strengthen management and supervision of the issuance and use of e-invoices. Accordingly, the tax departments of provinces and municipal cities focus on promoting peak months to prevent and combat buying and selling illegal invoices and tax refund fraud. In the first 10 months of 2023, the number of violating invoices was 18,178; The total value on the invoice is 2,477 billion VND with a tax amount of 115 billion VND; The total amount of money handled for invoice violations is 199 billion VND. Of which, VAT is 53 billion VND; Corporate income tax is 89 billion VND; Other taxes are 110 million VND; Fines and late payment are 36 billion VND; Deductible VAT reduction is 20 billion VND; VAT refund reduction is 962 million VND.

At the same time, from May 15, 2023, the General Department of Taxation will deploy a risk analysis application according to a set of assessment criteria, identifying taxpayers with signs of risk in the management and use of invoices. The Tax Authority has changed the form of using invoices from without code to with code for 618 businesses, putting 4.8 thousand businesses on the list that needs to check the management and use of invoices. The General Department of Taxation has also researched and applied a number of new technologies (big data analysis tools, artificial intelligence applications) to analyze e-invoice data.

The results show that, in the process of analyzing test trading chains, for cassava starch products, a chain of businesses with high risk of false invoices was discovered. In addition, the General Department of Taxation deployed an application to compare e-invoice data and VAT declarations from May 15, 2023 and deployed an analysis application, providing a list of false invoices according to the K coefficient to serve E-invoice control work, preventing the issue of false invoices from June 15, 2023.

At the Conference to summarize 2023 and deploy work in 2024 of the General Department of Taxation, sharing experiences on preventing risks of e-invoice fraud for tax refunds, Mr. Nguyen Toan Thang, Director of Dong Nai Tax Department, said that the Tax sector selects items with high risk of invoices such as soil, stone, sand, and gravel; planted forest wood, natural wood (except industrial wood); electronic products and consumer goods; scrap; providing services, etc for inspection and review. These are items that have the risk of floating goods and providing services that require output invoices but no input invoices, using invoices from "ghost businesses" to legalize purchased goods and services. Along with that, the Tax authority requires suspected businesses to provide financial reports for analysis.

Speech directing the work in 2024 of Deputy Minister of Finance Cao Anh Tuan required the Tax authority to drastically deploy e-invoices initiated from cash registers and issue invoices for each sale in the petroleum sector in accordance with legal regulations and direction of the Prime Minister; promptly advise the Ministry of Finance to report to the Government and the Prime Minister to direct and strengthen coordination with ministries, branches and localities to implement effectively, synchronously and create consensus and support in public opinion in general. Besides, improve one step the quality and efficiency of application, risk handling, and analysis of e-invoice data.

Electronic invoice deployment centres put into operation The General Department of Taxation has opened a series of electronic invoice deployment centres, located at its ...

To encourage consumers to get invoices, as well as create civilized consumption habits, buying and selling goods and services must have invoices and documents, protecting consumer rights, the General Department of Taxation has also implemented the Lucky Invoice Program. In 2023, the Tax sector awarded 3,532 prizes with a total amount of more than 9.6 billion VND.