Circular 39/2014 Issued on Invoicing Regulations in Vietnam

May 29, 2014 Posted by Vietnam Briefing Reading Time: 3 minutes

HANOI – Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance has issued Circular 39/2014 to provide guidance on invoicing regulations, replacing Circular 64/2013. The new Circular will come into effect from June 1, 2014. The content in the new Circular regards amendments to invoice self-printing and the tightening of the scope of entities allowed to self-print invoices.

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The Circular states that VAT invoices will be used for the export of goods or the provision of services to foreign countries or non-tariff areas, instead of the previously used export invoices, those will be abolished. For Export Processing Enterprises, sales invoices will be used for both domestic and export sales.

Companies are permitted to use self-printed invoices if:

Their charter capital is at least VND 15 billion (US$715,000); or
Their charter capital is below VND 15 billion but their total historical cost of fixed assets is at least VND 1 billion (US$48,000).

Additionally, the companies must satisfy all conditions stipulated in this new Circular, such as:

Be approved to be granted the tax code;
Have revenue from goods and services sold;
Have equipment systems for printing and formulating goods sales and service provisions invoices;
Have invoice self-printing software; and
Not commit violations on tax or be fined for tax-related issues.

If they do not comply with these conditions the fine will be less than VND 50 million (US$2,400).

The use of self-printed or pre-printed invoices now requires approval from the tax authorities – in the past, only a notification was required. Additionally, the name and the tax code of the self-printed invoice software provider are no longer required to be disclosed on the self-printed invoice.

Enterprises declaring VAT on a deemed basis, “high tax risk” enterprises, and enterprises using self-printed or pre-printed invoices which have been penalized for tax evasion are now required to purchase invoices from the tax authorities.

Companies considered “high tax risk” are required to use software downloaded from the website of the General Department of Taxation to print self-printed invoices if they do not want to purchase invoices from the tax authorities. “High risk tax” enterprises include:

Inter alia enterprises where owners’ equity is less than VND 15 billion and who submit their tax declarations more than 90 days after the deadline; or
Enterprises with more than 50 percent of their revenue coming from companies owned by family members.

Lastly, the Circular states that the requirement to cross the blank section of the VAT invoice is not applied for self-printed invoices or pre-printed invoices that are printed by a computer.

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