E-invoice will be soon compulsorily applied

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As of the end of 2017, 2,939 businesses are using e-invoice and e-invoice with Tax code.

Nearly 3,000 businesses have applied

According to the General Department of Taxation, businesses in provinces and cities in the country have basically used e-invoice, but mainly in Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City, and large businesses operating in the fields of trade and service with advanced IT infrastructure such as Vietnam Electricity Corporation (EVN), Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), Viettel Group, Vietnam airlines and Hanoi-Sai Gon Railway Transport Company. The e-invoice application in the above-mentioned businesses has achieved positive results and satisfaction for customers, and saved time and cost for the businesses. Therefore, prompting IT application in managing and book-keeping, enhancing efficiency of production and business, service quality and increasing the competitiveness of businesses.

According to the report from General Department of Taxation, until the end of 2017, 2,939 businesses (out of 560,000 businesses) have used e-invoice and e-invoice with tax code. Total 1.6 billion e-invoices have been used.

Mr. Nguyen Van Phung, Director of Department for Tax administration of large enterprises under the General of Taxation, said that currently, IT and information infrastructure system tends to increasingly develop, facilitating the development of e-invoice. The e-transaction of goods, services and payment is increasingly developed, thereby promoting demand of e-invoice use.

“For the Tax authority, the e-invoice application has helped the Tax sector to develop a database on invoices. The Tax authority is not required to check invoices, but is to promptly prevent invoices of escaped businesses and overcome situations of making fake invoices and illegally using invoices or writing invoices with different contents between copies”- Mr. Phung said.

In addition, the e-invoice application has also contributed to reducing time and cost of invoicing for businesses and restricting invoice infringement and reducing time for carrying out administrative procedures. Mr. Hoang Bao Ngoc, the representative from CMC Software Solution Company affirmed that the benefits from e-invoice have overcome the disadvantages of paper invoices. “It has helped to reduce costs in printing, sending and storing paper invoice. Saving cost and enhancing efficiency of business and production and increasing competitiveness for businesses. The book-keeping, checking data, declaration and tax payment (information in e-invoice) will be sent directly to the accounting system and payment system of businesses trading goods and services. The accounting has been modernized and the management capacity of businesses will be improved” Mr. Bao said.

According to many experts, the e-invoice application has completely complied with the trend of e-transaction by forms of transaction that are quite popular in Vietnam as well as in the world such as Mobile Banking, Internet Banking, SMS Banking.

Legal framework will be provided soon

The limited knowledge of e-invoice by businesses and people is the difficulty in deploying e-invoice. Competent agencies in charge of inspecting goods and officers of these agencies are not interested in e-invoice. Moreover, the customers have not used e-invoice due to psychology and habit in trading goods and services which must use paper invoice to prove transaction.

Provisions on e-invoice application in economic transaction have not been specified in the law on accounting and current laws on tax administration and VAT. The General Department of Taxation said that in order to be in accordance with provisions of accounting law and create transparent business environment and develop e-commerce, the promulgation provisions on using e-invoice documents to replace paper invoice is consistency.

Toward applying e-invoice on a large scale VCN- Draft decree on bills of sale of goods and services are being discussed by the Ministry ...

Currently, the Ministry of Finance has submitted the draft revised Decree on invoice to the Government to replace Decree 51/2010/ND-CP dated 14th May 2010 and Decree 04/2014/ND-CP dated 17th January of the Government. It is expected to take effect on 1st July 2018.

“New contents prescribed in the Draft aim to facilitate legitimate businesses and contribute to creating a transparent business environment. The main contents in the draft stipulate that e-invoice shall be compulsorily applied to businesses, organizations, State agencies, and agencies in charge of market managing and inspecting. Enterprises are only permitted to use e-invoice and are not permitted to use 2 types of paper invoice as previously. Some specific cases cannot use e-invoice, the Tax authority will print invoice to issue or sell to enterprises” Mr. Phung said.