The Government promulgates the Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Government's Decree No. 51/2010/NÐ-CP dated May 14, 2010 defining goods sale and service provision invoices,

DECREE

ON AMENDING, SUPPLEMENTING A NUMBER OF ARTICLES OF THE GOVERNMENT'S DECREE No. 51/2010/NÐ-CP DATED MAY 14, 2010 ON GOODS SALE AND SERVICE PROVISION INVOICES

Pursuant to the Law on Government organization dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to the Law on tax administration dated November 29, 2006 and the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on tax administration dated November 20, 2012;

Pursuant to the Law on Accounting dated June 17, 2003;

Pursuant to the Law on E-Transactions dated November 29, 2005;

Pursuant to the Law on value-added tax dated June 03, 2008 and the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on value-added tax dated June 19, 2013;

At the proposal of the Minister of Finance;

The Government promulgates the Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Government's Decree No. 51/2010/NÐ-CP dated May 14, 2010 defining goods sale and service provision invoices,

Article 1. Amending, supplementing a number of articles of the Government's Decree No. 51/2010/NÐ-CP dated May 14, 2010 defining goods sale and service provision invoices as follows:

1. To amend Clause 1 and Clause 2, Article 4 as follows:

"1. Invoices provided in this Decree take the following types:

b) Value-added invoice, which is a goods and service sale invoice reserved for organizations that declare value-added tax by the credit method;

c) Sale invoice, which is an invoice for goods and service sale reserved for organizations and individuals that declare value-added tax by the direct method.

d) Other types of invoice, including tickets, cards or documents which have other names but the same forms and contents provided in Clauses 2 and 3 of this Article.

2. An invoice may take any of the following forms:

a) Self-printed invoice, which is printed out by business organizations themselves from informatics' devices, computers, cash registers or other machines when selling goods or services;

b) E-invoice, which is a combination of e-data massages on goods and service sale which are created, made, sent, received, stored and managed under the Law on E-Transactions and guiding documents;

c) Invoice printed on order, which is an invoice printed on order of business organizations according to a set form for goods and service trading activities, or on order of tax agenices according to a set form for distribution or sale to organizations and individuals."

2. To amend and supplement Article 5 as follows:

"Article 5. Principles of creation and issuance of invoices

1. Business organizations may print out invoices by themselves or generate e-invoices for the use in goods and service sale if they meet the conditions provided in Article 6 and Article 7 of this Decree.

2. Business organizations must order the printing of invoices for their goods and service trading activities if they have tax code but failing to meet the conditions provided in Clause 1of this Article.

3. Tax agencies of provinces and centrally run cities (below referred to as Departments of Taxation) shall order the printing of, and issue, invoices for distribution or sale to organizations and individuals under Article 10 of this Decree.

4. Enterprises those fully meet the conditions provided in Article 22 of this Decree may print invoices on behalf of other organizations.

5. Business organizations may use various forms of invoice at the same time. The State encourages the use of e-invoices.

6. When printing invoices, organizations are prohibited from printing the same number in invoices which have the same symbol.

7. Before the use of invoices for goods and service sale, organizations shall inform the issuance according to the provisions of Article 11 and Article 12 of this Decree."

3. To amend Article 6 as follows:

"Article 6. Self-printed invoices

1. Enterprises established under law in industrial parks, economic zones, export-processing zones or hi-tech parks, enterprises having a charter capital level prescribed by the Ministry of Finance, and public non-business units conducting production and business activities under law may themselves print invoices after obtaining their tax identification numbers.

2. Business organizations, excluding cases defined in Clause 1 of this Article, may themselves print invoices for the use of goods and service sale if they fully meet the following conditions:

a) Having obtained tax identification numbers;

b) Having turnover from goods and service sale;

c) Not having been sanctioned for tax-related violations prescribed by the Ministry of Finance for 365 (three hundred and sixty five) consecutive days by the date of notification of the issuance of self-printed invoices;

d) Having equipment systems for printing and making out invoices when selling goods or services;

dd) Being accounting units as defined in the Accounting Law and having goods and service sale software linked with accounting software to ensure that invoices will be printed and made out only when accounting operations arise;

e) Having a written request for the use of self-printed invoices and permitted by tax agencies. Within 05 working days, the directly managing tax agencies shall have opinions regarding the registration of the self-printed invoice use of enterprises.

3. Self-printed invoices must abide by the principle that an invoice has the sole number. The number of invoice copies to be printed depends on specific use needs of sale operations. The organizations shall define in writing on their own about the number of invoice copies.

4. For enterprises that commit violations against invoice use and management; enterprises with high risks on the compliance of tax law, the Ministry of Finance shall base on the regulations of law on tax administration and law on information technology to perform suitable measures of supervision and management in order to implement according to law on invoice.

5. Enterprises that are using self - printed invoices commit violations against invoice and are sanctioned administrative violations of tax fraud, tax evasion or enterprises with high risks related to tax according to the provisions of the Law on tax administration are not allowed to use self - printed invoices, they must buy invoices of tax agencies with the time limit in accordance with Clause 2, Article 10 of this Decree. The time when self - printed invoices are not permitted to use is counted from the effective date of the Decision on sanctioning administrative violations of tax fraud, tax evasion (for enterprises that commit violations against invoices resulting in tax fraud, tax evasion) or from the time when tax agencies request (for enterprises with high risks related to tax). The Ministry of Finance shall specify the provisions of this Clause.

6. The Ministry of Finance shall provide regulations and guidance for production and business organizations that use cash registers to print goods sale and service provision invoices according to regulations of law on invoice management."

4. To amend and supplement Clause 2 Article 8 as follows:

"2. Institutions doing business, enterprises having tax code may order the printing of invoices for the use in activities of goods sale of service provision, excluding business households and individuals and enterprises provided in Clause 4, Clause 5 , Article 6 of this Decree.

Before ordering the printing of invoices for the first time, organizations doing business, enterprises (excluding subjects allowed to create invoices printed on order) shall send a written registration of invoice printed on order use to directly managing tax agencies. Within 5 working days, the directly managing tax agencies shall have opinions regarding the registration of the invoice printed on order use of enterprises

Enterprises that are using invoices printed in order commit violations against invoice and are sanctioned administrative violations of tax fraud, tax evasion or enterprises with high risks related to tax according to the provisions of the Law on tax administration are not allowed to use invoices printed in order, they must buy invoices of tax agencies with the time limit in accordance with Clause 2, Article 10 of this Decree. The time when invoices printed on order are not permitted to use is counted from the effective date of the Decision on sanctioning administrative violations of tax fraud, tax evasion (for enterprises that commit violations against invoices resulting in tax fraud, tax evasion) or from the time when tax agencies request (for enterprises with high risks related to tax).

5. To amend and supplement Clause 2 of Article 10 as follows:

"2. Invoices printed on order of Departments of Taxation may be sold only to organizations other than enterprises which conduct business activities and to business households and individuals with their establishments based in localities and enterprises disallowed to order the printing of, or self - print, invoices as defined in Clause 4, Clause 5, Article 6 and Clause 2, Article 8 of this Decree. Enterprises may buy invoices of tax agencies within 12 months. After the duration, if conditions of self - printing invoices or ordering the printing of invoices are met, tax agencies shall inform to the enterprises transferring to themselves print invoices for their use or vice versa."

6. To amend Article 22 as follows:

"Article 22. Conditions and obligations of invoice printing organizations, providers of invoice - printing software

1. Condition on and responsibilities of invoice-printing organizations:

a) Condition:

An invoice-printing organization must be an enterprise possessing a printing permit.

b) Responsibilities:

- To print invoices under signed contracts; to refrain from outsourcing any or all of printing stages to other printing organizations;

- To manage, preserve and dispose of printing molds, printed blanks, printed invoices and defective printed invoices as agreed between the two parties and provided by law;

- To liquidate printing contracts with printing-ordering organizations or individuals and handle printing molds and discarded printed invoices under the Ministry Finance's regulations;

- Periodically sending the report on invoice printing to directly managing tax agencies for every 3 months.

2. Conditions and responsibility of providers of invoice printing software:

a) Condition:

The provider of invoice printing software must be issued with the Certificate of Business registration (Certificate of Enterprise registration) which licenses computer programming or software production, except for invoice printing software being used internally.

b) Responsibilities:

- Ensuring that the invoice - printing software provided for customers is conformable with regulations on printing invoices; do not provide false invoice - printing software of the designs in the software provided for other enterprises.

- Periodically, reporting the provision of invoice - printing software to directly managing tax agencies for every 3 months."

Article 2. Effect

1. This Decree takes effect on March 1, 2014.

2. The Ministry of Finance guides the execution of this Decree.

3. Ministers, Heads of ministerial agencies, Heads of Governmental agencies, Presidents of the People's Committees of central-affiliated cities and provinces, relevant organizations and individuals are responsible for the implementation of this Decree.