General Department of Taxation’s official letter introducing new contents of Circular 78/2021/TT-BTC guiding on invoices and supporting documents

Some notable contents of Official Letter 4144 are summarized below.

Authorization to issue e-invoices.

• The authorized party is a related party of the seller, who is eligible to use the e-invoice and does not stop using the e-invoice. The related party relationship is determined according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 5 of Decree No. 132/2020/ND-CP.
• The authorization must be made in written form (either authorization contract or agreement) between two parties. The two parties must register with the tax.

Handling of incorrect e-invoices after the first time

In Article 7 of Circular 78, guiding the handling of errors of e-invoices in subsequent times if there are still errors after the first processing, instructions for handling the e-invoice datasheets in the event of errors, missing invoice data or corrections needed. As follows:

• The seller has the option to notify the adjustment of each incorrect invoice or to notify the adjustment of multiple e-invoices with errors to the tax authority by no later than the last day of the declaration period when the invoice generated;
• In case the e-invoice has been made with errors and the seller has processed it in the form of adjustment or replacement, if other errors are discovered, the new errors will be processed in the same manner with the first;
• Upward adjustment (positive sign) or downward adjustment (negative mark) is made in accordance with the actual amount.

Invoice used in transition period

• If taxpayers have informed the issuance of externally printed invoices or internally printed invoices, unauthenticated e-invoices or have applied for use of authenticated e-invoices, or have purchased invoices from tax authorities before Circular 78’s issuance date (17 September 2021) are allowed to continue using these invoices up to 30 June 2022.
• For new business established between Circular 78’s issuance date and 30 June 2022, if they could meet the conditions of IT infrastructure and has been notified by the tax authority for the application of e-invoice, the businesses shall follow the instructions of the tax authority.

In addition, OL 4144 also discusses new points in Circular 78 on form number, reference number of an invoice, conversion to authenticated e-invoices, cases to apply for e-invoices, etc.