Circular No. 360-TC/TCT regarding the use of invoices

LETTER

OF THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE NO. 360-TC/TCT ON MARCH 25, 1991
REGARDING THE USE OF INVOICES

Respectfully submitted to: - Ministries, General Departments

- People's Committees of provinces, cities, and special administrative regions

under the central government

- Provincial Departments of Finance and Taxation Bureaus in cities and provinces,

special administrative regions directly under the central government

The Ministry of Finance has issued Decision No. 54-TC/TCT on February 20, 1991, establishing the management system for sales invoices, which stipulates the types of sales invoices issued by the Ministry of Finance and uniformly applied to all production and business establishments belonging to all economic sectors throughout the country from April 1, 1991.

Circular No. 118-TC/TCT dated March 4, 1991, of the General Department of Taxation guiding the implementation of the above decision has provided that invoices and invoices combined with warehouse dispatch notes printed and sold by the General Department of Taxation to users from April 1, 1991, will replace the types of invoices previously printed by various sectors and localities.

In accordance with Decision No. 54-TC/TCT, the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Taxation) has printed and distributed new types of invoices to be issued to provincial Taxation Bureaus for sale to users. However, many units and localities still have large stocks of previously printed invoices. Many units and localities have requested permission to continue using some types of previously printed invoices that have been inspected and stamped for registration by tax authorities.

After reviewing the actual situation, in order to utilize the remaining stock of invoices efficiently, the Ministry of Finance decides as follows:

1. From April 1, 1991, while using the new types of invoices issued by the General Department of Taxation, continue to allow the use of certain types of previously issued invoices whose formats match those of the newly issued invoices and have been registered and stamped for use by provincial, city, and special administrative region tax authorities, but such use must not exceed December 31, 1991.

Units currently holding registered and stamped invoices must report their inventory quantities of each type and register their usage period (until the end of a specific day and month) with the tax authority directly managing them, but the maximum usage period shall not exceed December 31, 1991.

2. For units with small remaining stocks of old invoices as of April 1, 1991, who have purchased new invoices issued by the Ministry of Finance, they should use the new invoices according to Decision No. 54-TC/TCT. These units must conduct an inventory and report to Decision No. 54-TC/TCT dated February 20, 1991, and the Ministry of Finance will unify the issuance of sales invoices for production and business establishments.

Legal bases regarding accounting books and invoice vouchers for non-state-owned economies have been relatively complete, but their implementation has been slow and unproductive. This situation cannot be allowed to continue; tax authorities at all levels must take measures to improve the situation positively, gradually eliminating inequality between state-owned and non-state-owned economies in tax payment and declaration. In the short term, local tax authorities need to do the following:

- Train grassroots tax officials to become proficient in the established accounting systems, capable of guiding and inspecting businesses' compliance with accounting bookkeeping regulations. They must combat the reluctance to learn and apply accounting systems to non-state-owned enterprises through political and ideological work and tax management methods.

- Firmly require businesses (initially households A and B) to strictly comply with accounting bookkeeping regulations, implementing this in stages as follows:

Issue formal decisions specifying mandatory accounting records for specific types of entities;

Households exempted from keeping accounting books or maintaining one book (Article 11 of Decision No. 598).

Households required to maintain three books (Article 12 of Decision No. 598).

Business establishments required to implement double-entry bookkeeping (Article 14 of Decision No. 598).

All business establishments purchasing goods must have proof, and selling goods must issue invoices according to the prescribed regulations.

- Launch a movement among the people to insist on receiving invoices when purchasing goods.

Organize focused inspections of invoice issuance...

Implementing the private accounting system is a complex process of applying regulations from low to high standards, continuously learning and improving. During the transitional period, appropriate tax collection methods can be applied based on the level of business establishments and tax management capabilities to prevent revenue loss, but the current situation cannot be prolonged; immediate measures must be taken, initially piloted to lay the groundwork for future years.

When tax authorities announce these measures, they must strengthen inspections, promptly penalizing violators to accelerate the process of orderly accounting and voucher management.

6. Urgently reorganize tax collection management at the grassroots level according to the specialized responsibilities of each type of staff and each part of the work. Quickly terminate the closed-loop management of tax collection, ensuring that management teams do not handle from the initial stage to the final stage without the knowledge of the Tax Bureau about the inventory of old invoices registered and stamped for use by the tax authority for inspection and clearance.

3. To ensure uniformity in the use of invoices at each unit and to guarantee the tax authority's supervision over tax payments: no unit may simultaneously use both old and newly issued invoices.

4. Units requiring separate receipts for money collection or using computer-generated invoices must register the required invoice formats with the Tax Bureaus (according to the attached registration form). Tax Bureaus should study and specify necessary coding to closely monitor the use of these invoices. At the same time, Tax Bureaus should compile reports on special invoice formats registered for use by units and the handling measures of the Bureaus to the General Department of Taxation for unified decision-making and announcement nationwide.

In order to strictly implement Decision No. 54-TC/TCT and the supplementary provisions, the Tax Departments need to disseminate guidance to the tax branches and units using invoices so that they understand and comply with the regulations on managing and using invoices. The Tax Departments will no longer stamp registration for old types of invoices. For units and localities that still have large quantities of previously printed invoices in stock, if it is deemed usable, the Tax Departments must conduct specific inspections and report to the General Department the quantity of each type of remaining stock, along with samples of the invoices and recommendations for handling measures for the General Department to consider and decide.

To quickly unify the use of invoice types issued by the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Taxation) and to avoid waste in printing invoices, it is requested that sectors, units, and localities not continue to print or sell invoices contrary to Decision No. 54-TC/TCT and Circular No. 118-TC/TCT.

SAMPLE APPLICATION FOR REGISTRATION TO USE INVOICES

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM

Independence - Freedom - Happiness

... day... month... year 199...

APPLICATION FOR REGISTRATION TO USE INVOICES

Respectfully submitted to: Tax Department ...

- Our unit is:

- Belongs to Ministry, Department, Sector

- Address at:

- Main production and business activities ...

- Registered to pay taxes at the tax authority...

Currently using and requesting to continue using the following types of invoices:

1..........

2..........

Other related issues (if any): In addition to the main task of assessing technologyand the environment, it is also necessary to consider and comment on otherrelated issues such as:

(Invoice samples attached).

Requesting the Tax Department to approve the registration to use the above types of invoices from...day...month...year...

Head of the unit

(Signature, stamp)

Note: The unit is required to send two sets of its invoice samples to the Tax Department. The Tax Department retains one set, and one set is compiled and sent back to the General Department of Taxation along with proposed handling opinions.