VNC Consulting provides reference information related to Legal Documents to note when using Invoices and Vouchers from Foreign Suppliers as follows:

• Article 4 of Circular No. 96/2015/TT BTC dated June 22, 2015 of the Ministry of Finance amending and supplementing Article 6 of Circular No. 78/2014/TT-BTC as follows:

“Article 6. Deductible and non-deductible expenses when determining taxable income

1. Except for non-deductible expenses mentioned in Clause 2 of this Article, enterprises may deduct all expenses if they fully satisfy the following conditions:

a) Actual expenses incurred in connection with production and business activities of the enterprise.

b) Expenses with sufficient legal invoices and vouchers as prescribed by law.

c) Expenses if there is an invoice for purchase of goods and services each time with a value of 20 million VND or more (VAT included) when making payment, there must be a non-cash payment voucher.

Non-cash payment vouchers comply with the provisions of legal documents on value-added tax.”

• Article 20 of the Law on Accounting No. 88/2015/QH13 dated November 20, 2015 of the National Assembly provides for invoices:

“1. Invoice is an accounting voucher made by an organization or individual that sells goods or provides services, and records sales and service provision information in accordance with law.

2. Invoice content, form, order of making, managing and using invoices comply with the provisions of tax law.”

• In Clause 5, Article 5 of Decree No. 174/2016/ND-CP dated December 30, 2016 of the Government providing for accounting vouchers:

“5. Accounting vouchers written in foreign languages, when used to record accounting books and prepare financial statements in Vietnam, must be translated into Vietnamese with the main contents specified in Clause 1, Article 16 of the Law on Accounting. The accounting unit must be responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the contents of the accounting vouchers translated from a foreign language into Vietnamese. The Vietnamese translation of the accounting voucher must be attached to the original in foreign language.

Documents attached to accounting vouchers in foreign languages such as contracts, documents attached to payment vouchers, investment project dossiers, settlement reports and other relevant documents of the accounting unit are not required to be translated into Vietnamese unless requested by a competent state agency.”

• According to Circular 103/2014/TT-BTC, foreign organizations and individuals doing business in Vietnam or earning income in Vietnam are subject to tax.

Clause 3, Article 7 of Circular 103/2014 stipulates that income generated in Vietnam of foreign contractors and foreign sub-contractors is incomes received in any form on the basis of contractor contracts, sub-contractor contracts (except for the case specified in Article 2, Chapter I), regardless of the location where the foreign contractor or foreign sub-contractor conducts business activities.

Thus, invoices and vouchers to be included in deductible expenses when determining taxable income and using them to keep as accounting vouchers are specified in the above-mentioned legal documents. And the company also needs to pay attention to the declaration and payment documents of contractor tax.

Companies can base themselves on the provisions of current legal documents and the actual situation at their units to comply with regulations or contact the tax authorities directly administering them for implementation guidance.