Electronic invoice: a big improvement of the tax sector

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Good preparation

Historically, the first legal basis to encourage businesses to use electronic invoices instead of printing invoices was prescribed in the Government's Decree No. 51/2010/ND-CP for goods sale and service provision invoices. Then, in 2011, when the Ministry of Finance issued the Circular No. 32/2011/TT-BTC providing guidance on the creation, issuance and use of goods sale and service provision contracts, Tax authorities applied the model for electronic invoices.

With these two legal bases, in preparation for the pilot implementation of the electronic invoices, since 2011, the General Department of Taxation has invested in machines and equipment, has upgraded the Internet transmission system, and has cooperated closely with the companies that provide software solutions to complete the application. At the same time, to formulate a process of guiding enterprises and tax offices to participate in; data transmission, import, export, cancelling invoices and storing them on the computers of the parties according to the provisions of law on e-transactions.

Only after 3 years of building, connecting and piloting, by 2014, there were more than 200 enterprises using electronic invoices, and initially it brought with it many utilities for enterprises. As noted by the General Department of Taxation, in the first phase of the pilot, the electronic invoices received the support of many businesses operating in the fields of Aviation, Banking, Electricity, Telecommunications... Along with that, the General Department of Taxation also continuously implemented mechanisms to encourage enterprises to use and to expand throughout the country in the long term. The taxation sector aims are that it will force the use of electronic invoices instead of the use of printing invoices at a certain stage of development.

By 2016, in order to implement the Resolution 36a/NQ-CP on e-Government and Resolution 19-2016/NQ-CP of the Government, leaders of the Ministry of Finance asked the General Department of Taxation to continue to complete the regulations. This is the basis for the implementation of electronic invoices, electronic invoices within the verification code of the tax office, for the connection of information on invoices between the tax offices and the enterprises nationwide.

Accordingly, the tax sector must develop a circular for guiding electronic invoices, electronic invoices within the verification code of the tax office that fully stipulates the principles of implementation, classification of objects using electronic invoices... In addition, defining the responsibilities of enterprises in sharing and linking information on invoices with tax offices; building the criteria for classifying and determining the use of the electronic invoices with or without the tax code and sanctions.

This is the basis for the year of 2016, the tax sector expanded the pilot for the use of electronic invoices, electronic invoices with verification code of the tax office, connecting information with the tax authorities for businesses in the field of hotels, supermarkets and some other goods and services using cash registers, installing software for payment system in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and some localities.

Gradually comes to life

According to statistics of the General Department of Taxation, as to the day of November 20, 2018, there were 253 enterprises issued tax declaration codes with tax office with 7,259,022 validated invoices. As a result, the total revenue is more than 82,590 billion vnd. This is not a small figure and reflects that the efforts of the tax sector initially acheived good results.

According to Ms. Phung Thi Thanh (a resident of Hai Ba Trung district, Hanoi), she is a citizen, but she could feel the benefits that the electronic invoices brings to her from the first day. Thanh took an example of using a smartphone in the payment of electricity bills.

"When it comes to electricity bills, compared to the use of printing invoices, the electronic invoices are much faster, the people just need to remember the customer code provided by the electricity industry to be able to pay their bills. In the coming time, I hope there will be more units using electronic invoices to facilitate the people," she shared.

About the benefit of electronic invoice to enterprises, Mr. Dinh Van Thien, Chief Accountant of Xuan Mai Paper Company, said that his company was one of the first enterprises to use invoices with the Hanoi tax agency’s tax code, he found that the electronic invoice system with the code of the General Department of Taxation operates quite smoothly and has rarely had errors from the beginning of the deployment.

"The data management system is good, reducing the errors on the invoice, improving business efficiency by streamlining the process. This system optimizes production by improving the efficiency for planning implementation, operation and cost reductions. At the same time, it helps to improve accounting skills, minimizing work for the accounting department,” Mr. Thien said.

On the basis of the results obtained in the first phase of piloting electronic invoices and electronic invoices with the tax code, the Decree No. 119/2018/ND-CP was promulgated and officially applied from November 1, 2018. With this Decree, more than 600,000 businesses and more than 2 million business households across the country will "move" with the tax sector, towards the electronic use of invoices.

Electronic bill: Save money, secure information VCN- As of November 1, 2018, a number of businesses will have to change to electronic invoices. ...

The Ministry of Finance as well as the General Department of Taxation expect the following achievements, the electronic invoices will officially enter all aspects of life, and make a positive impact on production and business activities as well as people. And above all, the tax sector also expects that the electronic invoices will contribute to reducing the state budget deficit effectively, ensuring a fair and transparent business environment.