Deploying electronic invoices in 57 provinces and cities

On September 17, 2021, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular No.78/2021/TT-BTCguiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Tax Administration dated June 13, 2019, Decree No.123/2020/ND-CPOctober 19, 2020 of the Government regulating invoices and documents.

These are documents of great importance in transforming the management and use of electronic invoices and helping to save costs for businesses and society, specifically:

I.Dstaini with organizations and individuals purchasing goods and services:

- Helps buyers easily look up and compareelectronic invoiceprovided by the seller.

- Using electronic invoices helps businesses reduce costs compared to using paper invoices (reduces costs of printing paper, ink, transportation, invoice storage, no need for invoice storage space,...).

- Help businesses reduce costs of tax administrative compliance.

- Overcome the risk of loss, damage, and fire when using paper invoices.

- Using electronic invoices creates peace of mind for buyers of goods and services: after receiving an electronic invoice, buyers of goods and services can immediately check on the tax authority's system to know the exact information about the invoice sent by the seller to the tax authority.

Biomass pellet processing plant in VSIP Industrial Park. Photo: Tran Chau

II. For organizations and individuals selling goods and providing services:

- Proper implementation of regulations on invoices and documents of organizations and individuals will help create a healthy and equal business environment among tax-paying organizations and individuals, thereby facilitating production and business activities of enterprises.

- Reduce administrative procedures related to invoices; reduce costs related to sending, preserving, storing invoices and reduce the risk of losing invoices.

- Easily integrate established invoice data into accounting software, no need to re-enter, reduce human effort, limit errors, easy to look up;

III. For society:

- Contribute to transforming the way people are served, the management method, and the implementation organization of tax authorities towards automation to reform administrative procedures, create convenience, reduce costs, and increase business productivity.

- Proper implementation of regulations on invoices and documents by organizations and individuals helps create a healthy and equal business environment among tax-paying organizations and individuals, thereby facilitating the production and business activities of enterprises.

- Promote the development of e-commerce and digital business in line with the general development trend of the world.

- Deploying electronic invoices is one of the important contents to promote digital transformation in enterprises, digital transformation for financial agencies as well as in other state agencies.

- Using electronic invoices helps to overcome the situation of fraudulent and illegal use of invoices (creating invoices with incorrect content between copies), and counterfeiting invoices, thereby creating a healthy business environment for enterprises.

- Brings many common benefits to society, such as: saving costs, resources, and protecting the environment.

IV. For tax authorities and relevant State agencies:

- Using electronic invoices helps tax authorities build a database of invoices; combined with other tax management information to build a complete database of taxpayers to meet the requirements of information analysis for management, forecasting, supporting taxpayers to comply with tax laws and manage risks in tax management.

- Contribute to changing management methods based on IT application, improving business processes towards automatic data processing and control to help tax authorities effectively use resources, costs,...

- Contribute to timely prevention of invoices of absconding or missing businesses; contribute to prevention of tax fraud and tax evasion.

Exporting goods at Cua Lo Port. Photo: Thu Huyen

To implement the application of electronic invoices, the Ministry of Finance issued Decision No. 206/QD-BTC dated February 24, 2022 on the implementation of electronic invoices in 57 provinces and centrally-run cities, including Nghe An province, with implementation starting from April 2022. Identifying this as an important political task, the Nghe An Provincial Tax Department has consulted with the Provincial People's Committee to establish a Steering Committee and a standing team to implement electronic invoices; Develop an implementation plan as well as a detailed plan. Propagate and train on policies on electronic invoices, striving to complete assigned tasks well throughout the area. The Tax Department believes that the implementation of electronic invoices will bring many positive benefits, help businesses operate more effectively, contribute to the successful implementation of administrative reform tasks and initially lay the foundation for digitalization in the integration period.