What penalties are imposed on incorrect issuance of invoices upon sale of goods or services?

Invoices must be issued right after goods are sold and services are provided. They need to be supervised and checked meticulously to avoid mistakes. Violations against regulations on issuance of invoices can incur risks for enterprises, particularly administrative fines pursuant to Article 24, Decree 125/2020/ND-CP:

1. Cautions shall be given as a form of penalty imposed for the following violations:

a) Issuing invoices at the wrong time, but not to the extent of causing any deferred fulfillment of tax obligations, under any mitigating circumstance;

b) Issuing a continuous series of invoices in ascending numerical order by exercising disagreeing invoicing authorizations (i.e. exercising authorizations to issue greater numbered invoices and not exercising authorizations to issue less numbered invoices) although entities or individuals have managed to cancel invoice books containing less numbered invoices after discovery of such situation;

c) Issuing wrong types of invoice that have already handed to buyers or been used for completion of tax declaration procedures although sellers and buyers have discovered the issuance of the wrong types of invoice and replaced them with the correct ones before competent authority’s issuance of their decisions to conduct tax inspection and examination at the defaulting taxpayer’s offices or premises, and this situation does not affect the determination of tax obligations.

2. Fines ranging from VND 500,000 to VND 1,500,000 shall be imposed for one of the following violations:

a) Failing to issue general invoices in accordance with laws on invoices for sale of goods or provision of services;

b) Failing to invoice promotional, advertising or sample goods or services; goods and services used as gifts, donations, presents, swaps or employee’s payment-in-kind wages, except for internally circulated or consumed goods for further production purposes.

3. Fines ranging from VND 3,000,000 to VND 5,000,000 shall be imposed for any act of issuing invoices at the wrong time, but not to the extent of causing any deferred payment of tax obligations, except as prescribed in point a of clause 1 of this Article.

4. Fines ranging from VND 4,000,000 to VND 8,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following violations:

a) Issuing invoices at the wrong time in breach of laws on invoices for sale of goods or provision of services, except as provided in point a of clause 1 and 3 of this Article;

b) Issuing invoices without conforming to the statutory ascending numerical sequence, except when the penalty in the form of caution prescribed in point b of clause 1 of this Article is imposed;

c) Issuing invoices with the invoicing dates coming ahead of the dates of purchase of invoices from tax authorities;

d) Issuing invoices not conforming to classifications prescribed in laws on invoices for sale of goods and provision of services if these invoices have already been handed to buyers or used for the completion of tax declaration procedures, except in the case of imposition of the penalty in the form of caution as provided in point c of clause 1 of this Article;

dd) Issuing e-invoices when having not yet receiving notices of consent from tax authorities or before the dates of consent to using e-invoices with/without tax authority’s codes from supervisory tax authorities;

e) Issuing invoices for sale of goods and provision of services during the period of temporary business closure, except when issuing invoices to clients for the purpose of implementing contracts signed before the date of notification of such temporary business closure;

g) Issuing e-invoices by using cash registers without network connection or transfer of electronic data to tax authorities.

5. Fines ranging from VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 shall be imposed for any act of failing to issue invoices upon sale of goods or provision of services to buyers as required by laws, except the acts prescribed in point b of clause 2 of this Article.

6. Remedies: Compelling the issuance of invoices according to regulations with respect to the acts specified in point d of clause 4 and 5 of this Article upon buyer’s request.

As an established company in the field of tax and legal consulting, Vinasc hopes to adequately inform our customers to help them mitigate the risk during operation in Vietnam. Should there be any further concern, please contact Vinasc’s Customer Care department for timely support.