E-invoices in Vietnam for foreign-invested companies: issuing, receiving and keeping records

In Vietnam, invoices are not documents a company simply prints and sends. Every business, including every foreign-invested enterprise (FIE), must issue electronic invoices in a structured format, and the invoice data reaches the tax authority's system either before the invoice goes to the buyer or shortly after. The tax authority therefore sees your sales invoice by invoice, and it sees your suppliers' invoices to you.

For a finance team used to a group ERP that produces a PDF and emails it, this changes where the risk sits. The questions are not "did we send the invoice?" but "was it issued at the right moment, with the right content, through a registered channel — and did we keep the original electronic file?" The rest of this guide goes through those questions in the order an FIE usually meets them.

The rules you are working under

The two 2026 documents are new and we do not summarise their articles here. If your invoicing process, ERP configuration or intercompany manual was built on the earlier documents, have it checked against the 2026 texts. The working principles below — registration, timing, content, correction and storage — are how the system has operated in practice; the exact wording of each requirement should be read in the documents currently in force.

Setting up: registration and the two kinds of e-invoice

A company registers to use e-invoices through the tax authority's e-invoice portal, usually via an authorised e-invoice service provider, and may only issue invoices once the registration is accepted. Two kinds matter to most FIEs:

• E-invoices with a tax authority code. The invoice data is sent to the tax authority, which assigns a code before the invoice is delivered to the buyer. This is the default for most businesses.
• E-invoices without a code. Available to businesses that meet the conditions (typically larger taxpayers in certain sectors with the systems to support it). The company issues the invoice directly and transmits the data to the tax authority afterwards.

Some retail sales are also documented by e-invoices generated from cash registers connected to the tax authority. A manufacturer selling business-to-business will rarely need them; a consumer brand with its own shops probably will.

What an FIE should decide at set-up, not later: which legal entity and which tax code issues each invoice (a branch with its own tax code issues in its own name if registered to do so), who in Vietnam holds the digital signature, and how the group ERP connects to the service provider. The most common failure we see is a regional shared service centre that can create an invoice in the ERP but has no controlled way to sign and transmit it in Vietnam.

Issuing: timing and content

Timing is where group processes most often go wrong. Under the invoicing rules, an invoice for goods is issued when ownership or the right to use passes to the buyer, whether or not payment has been received; for services, when the service is completed, or earlier if payment is collected in advance. Month-end batch invoicing — standard practice in many group finance manuals — does not fit this rule for most transactions and should be checked.

Content requirements are specific. In practice, an FIE should check that every invoice carries:

• the seller's and buyer's legal names, addresses and tax codes exactly as registered (the tax code is known locally as MST, mã số thuế);
• a description of goods or services in Vietnamese; a foreign language may be added alongside, but not used instead;
• quantities, unit prices, the VAT rate and VAT amount, and the total payable;
• where the sale is priced in a foreign currency, the currency and exchange rate presented as the rules require.

Before the buyer receives anything, run the buyer's tax code through the tax authority's lookup. An invoice issued to a code that is no longer active, or to a name that does not match registration, becomes a correction later — and your customer may lose its VAT credit in the meantime. For many customers at once, a batch check such as CheckThue.com (Vietnamese) saves time.

Receiving: what accounts payable should check

Input VAT credit and CIT deductibility both depend on invoices received from suppliers. Three checks catch most problems:

1. The invoice exists in the tax authority's system. Look it up on the tax authority's e-invoice portal using the details on the invoice. A PDF that cannot be found there is not an invoice you can rely on.
2. The supplier is active. Check the supplier's tax code status before paying a new supplier and periodically for regular ones.
3. Payment matches the rules. Under Law 48/2024/QH15, a purchase invoice of VND 5 million or more needs evidence of non-cash payment for the input VAT to be credited. Petty-cash settlement of a large supplier invoice loses the credit.

Keep the XML file of each invoice received, not just the PDF rendering. The XML is the invoice; the PDF is a picture of it. Many AP teams discover this only when an inspector asks for originals and the mailbox that received them has been deleted.

Corrections: adjust or replace, never quietly reissue

Errors happen: a wrong price, a buyer's address from before a move, a line posted twice. The rules allow two routes — an adjustment invoice that corrects the original, or a replacement invoice that supersedes it — and in some cases the seller must also notify the tax authority of the error using the prescribed notification. Which route applies depends on the type of error and whether the invoice has already been sent to the buyer and coded.

What not to do: cancel an invoice in the ERP and issue a new one with a new number as if nothing happened. The tax authority has the original data; an unexplained second invoice looks like duplicate revenue or, worse, an attempt to change the sale after the fact. Agree the correction with the buyer in writing, keep that agreement with both invoices, and make sure the buyer's VAT return reflects the same correction.

Group recharges and overseas suppliers

Foreign parents and sister companies do not issue Vietnamese e-invoices. When the Vietnamese company pays a group company overseas for management services, IT support or royalties, the supporting documents are the agreement, the foreign invoice, evidence of the service actually received and the bank transfer. The Vietnamese company is also usually responsible for declaring and paying foreign contractor tax on that payment.

In the other direction, when the Vietnamese company charges a group company overseas — for contract manufacturing or services — it issues a Vietnamese e-invoice like any other sale. Group finance teams sometimes assume that intercompany charges sit outside local invoicing; they do not.

A related trap: recharges between two Vietnamese group entities. Each is a separate taxpayer, so a cost paid by one and used by the other needs an e-invoice between them, not an internal journal.

Keeping records, and where to check yourself

E-invoices must be kept in electronic form, in a way that allows them to be retrieved and displayed on request. Accounting documents used directly for bookkeeping and preparing financial statements must be kept for at least 10 years under the Law on Accounting. For an FIE that means: invoices issued and received in their original XML, the ERP postings that link them to the ledger, and the payment evidence — stored somewhere that survives a change of service provider or ERP.

Places to check your own position without an adviser:

• The tax authority's e-invoice portal — invoices issued by and to your company, and the status of each.
• The taxpayer information lookup — status of your own and your counterparties' tax codes, and the managing tax office.
• Your company's e-tax account — VAT returns filed and payments recorded, to reconcile against invoice data.
• Your managing tax office — since 1 July 2025 the tax administration works in three tiers: the Tax Department, provincial and city tax offices, and grassroots tax offices (Thuế cơ sở).

A monthly three-way reconciliation — invoices issued on the portal, revenue in the ledger, VAT return — takes an hour when done every month and several weeks when done once a year.