E-invoicing remains one of the most heavily revised areas in Vietnam’s 2026 tax law reform. From 1 July 2026, Decree No. 254/2026/ND-CP on invoices and documents and Circular No. 91/2026/TT-BTC guiding its implementation take effect, replacing the previous legal framework in its entirety — Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP, Decree No. 70/2025/ND-CP, and Circular No. 32/2025/TT-BTC. This article, prepared by TrustlineAX based on the original text of the above instruments and the underlying Law on Tax Administration No. 108/2025/QH15, walks through the key points that enterprises, business households, and individual business owners need to know.
1. The new legal framework on e-invoices
Three instruments now form the applicable framework for e-invoices:
- Law on Tax Administration No. 108/2025/QH15 (Article 26 – Electronic invoices, Article 27 – Electronic documents): sets out the foundational principles, effective from 1 July 2026; the requirement for business households and individual business owners to use e-invoices takes effect earlier, from 1 January 2026.
- Decree No. 254/2026/ND-CP: provides detailed rules on electronic invoices and documents, comprising 5 Chapters and 45 Articles, effective from 1 July 2026. This decree fully replaces Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP, Article 1 of Decree No. 41/2022/ND-CP (which amended Decree 123/2020), and Decree No. 70/2025/ND-CP.
- Circular No. 91/2026/TT-BTC: provides detailed guidance on the format, registration, and processing of electronic invoices and documents, effective from 1 July 2026, replacing Circular No. 32/2025/TT-BTC.
Consolidating all e-invoice and e-document rules into a single decree and a single circular — rather than scattering them across successive amendments as before — makes the rules considerably easier for businesses and accountants to look up and apply consistently.
2. Types of e-invoices and who must use them
Under Article 6 of Decree 254/2026/ND-CP, e-invoices are classified into three main categories by user group:
- Tax-authority-coded e-invoices: the default category for economic organizations, other organizations, business households, individual business owners, and cases identified as high tax risk.
- Non-coded e-invoices: available to enterprises in sectors such as electricity, petroleum, postal and telecommunications, clean water, banking and finance, securities, crypto-assets, insurance, healthcare, e-commerce, supermarkets, and air/road/rail/sea/inland waterway transport — provided the enterprise already has the IT infrastructure, accounting software, and e-invoicing systems needed to transmit data to the tax authority.
- E-invoices generated from cash registers connected to tax authority data systems: mandatory for economic organizations, business households, and individual business owners selling goods or providing services directly to consumers, such as shopping centers, supermarkets, retailers (excluding cars, motorcycles and mopeds), food and beverage outlets, restaurants, hotels, passenger transport services, and entertainment services including cinemas.
The most notable change: a revenue threshold triggers mandatory e-invoicing for business households
Under Point d, Clause 1, Article 6 of Decree 254/2026/ND-CP, business households and individual business owners with annual revenue exceeding VND 1 billion, or who sell assets subject to ownership/use-right registration, must adopt tax-authority-coded e-invoices or cash-register-generated e-invoices connected to tax authority data. This provision gives concrete effect to the 2025 Law on Tax Administration’s mandate to extend e-invoicing to the business household and individual business sector — a segment that has historically relied on paper invoices or issued no invoices at all.
3. Cases exempt from issuing e-invoices
Decree 254/2026/ND-CP (Article 7) sets out specific cases exempt from issuing e-invoices, notably:
- Business households and individual business owners required to prepare a schedule of goods and services purchased under corporate income tax regulations.
- Income from real estate leasing; supply of digital content products or services (games, digital films, digital images, digital music, digital advertising) to foreign organizations or individuals.
- Lottery agents, insurance agents, and multi-level marketing agents whose principal company has already withheld tax.
- Reinsurance income, deposit-taking, issuance of certificates of deposit or securities, debt sales, and foreign exchange and derivatives transactions.
- Capital contributions in kind; internal transfers of assets between dependent accounting units; internally circulated goods and services used for production and business; and receipts unrelated to the sale of goods or provision of services (compensation, bonuses, amounts collected or paid on behalf of others, etc.).
4. Timing of invoice issuance: dedicated rules for specific industries
Article 9 of Decree 254/2026/ND-CP retains the general principle — an invoice for goods sold must be issued at the time ownership or the right of use is transferred, and an invoice for services must be issued upon completion of the service or upon advance receipt of payment — while also setting out detailed timing rules for a wide range of industries with data-reconciliation needs or high transaction volumes, for example:
- Telecommunications, IT, and data services: no later than 2 months from the month the service charge is incurred (to allow for data reconciliation between parties).
- Air transport, insurance sold through agents, e-commerce, logistics, banking, and similar services: no later than the 7th day of the following month, or within 7 days of the end of the agreed period.
- Real estate business: invoices are issued in line with payment progress where ownership or use rights have not yet been transferred; issued at the time of transfer once handover has occurred.
- Metered taxis using fare-calculation software: an e-invoice must be issued at the moment the trip ends and the data transmitted to the tax authority.
- Medical examination and treatment facilities using hospital-fee management software: may consolidate charges into a single invoice issued at the end of the day if the patient does not request a separate invoice for each visit.
- Non-stop electronic toll collection: the invoice date is the date the vehicle passes through the toll station, or invoices may be issued periodically at month-end listing each individual pass in detail.
- Casinos and prize-winning electronic games: invoices must be issued no later than 1 day after the end of the revenue-determination day (defined as 6:00 a.m. to 5:59 a.m. the following day).
- Retail sale of petroleum: an invoice must be issued immediately at the end of each sale.
Spelling out timing rules down to the level of individual industries should reduce the disputes and practical difficulties that have historically been a common source of administrative penalties for invoicing errors.
5. Risk management: criteria and procedure for suspending e-invoice use
Circular 91/2026/TT-BTC (Articles 7 and 8) sets out specific criteria for identifying high-risk taxpayers and the corresponding handling procedure:
High-risk criteria include: the owner or legal representative having been found responsible for invoice fraud or invoice trading; appearing on a list of suspicious transactions under anti-money-laundering law; registering a headquarters address that is not specific or that sits within an apartment unit not licensed for business use (except for any portion legally permitted for business); the legal representative also being linked to a tax code that has been terminated or is not operating at its registered address; and other risk indicators under Circular No. 94/2026/TT-BTC on compliance and risk management in tax administration.
Grounds for suspending e-invoice use are similarly broad: termination of tax code validity; not operating at the registered address; temporary business suspension; enforcement of tax debt collection through invoice-use suspension; using invoices to sell smuggled, prohibited, or counterfeit goods; issuing fictitious invoices to misappropriate funds; and falling within the high-risk category under Circular 94/2026/TT-BTC. Where an explanation is requested, the taxpayer has 3 working days to respond (with one possible extension); invoices may still be issued on a case-by-case basis while the explanation is pending.
Notably, business households and individual business owners who already held a tax code before 1 July 2025 but whose tax registration information does not match the National Population Database will be asked to supplement their information within 10 working days; failure to do so within that period will result in suspension of e-invoice use — a measure that closely ties e-invoicing to personal identification data.
6. Encouraging buyers to request invoices, and rewarding whistleblowers
One notably consumer-facing change: the 2025 Law on Tax Administration (Clause 7, Article 26) and Decree 254/2026/ND-CP (Article 41) formally codify a reward mechanism for consumers who report sellers that fail to issue or hand over invoices. The reward for each case may not exceed 10% of the administrative penalty imposed and is capped at VND 10,000,000 per case, funded from the state budget. This tool is expected to help tax authorities identify sellers who evade issuing invoices, particularly at retail and food-and-beverage outlets.
7. Transitional handling: old paper invoices, receipts, and invoices issued under prior rules
Decree 254/2026/ND-CP and Circular 91/2026/TT-BTC set out clear transitional milestones:
- Tax-authority-ordered printed invoices lose validity from the date the Decree takes effect; any unused printed invoices must be destroyed following the procedure set by the Ministry of Finance.
- Self-printed or ordered paper receipts issued under Decree 123/2020/ND-CP that remain unused may continue to be used through 31 December 2026; from 1 January 2027 they must be fully destroyed and replaced with electronic receipts.
- For invoices issued incorrectly under prior regulations (Decree 51/2010/ND-CP, Decree 04/2014/ND-CP, or Decree 123/2020/ND-CP, Decree 70/2025/ND-CP, Circular 32/2025/TT-BTC), the seller and buyer must execute a written agreement, after which the seller issues a new replacement e-invoice clearly stating “Replacement for invoice Form No. … serial … number … dated …” and fully referencing the details of the replaced invoice.
8. What should enterprises and business households prepare before 1 July 2026?
- Review which of the three e-invoice categories (coded, non-coded, or cash-register-generated) applies to your enterprise or business household and register accordingly under Article 6 of Decree 254/2026/ND-CP.
- Business households and individual business owners with annual revenue above VND 1 billion should proactively register for e-invoicing ahead of the deadline, rather than waiting until the requirement takes effect on 1 January 2026 (under the Law) and 1 July 2026 (under the implementing Decree and Circular).
- Verify tax registration information (particularly for business households that obtained a tax code before 1 July 2025) matches the National Population Database, to avoid suspension of e-invoice use.
- Review the registered business address to avoid triggering high-risk indicators (non-specific addresses, registration within an apartment unit not licensed for business use, etc.).
- For specialized industries (telecommunications, insurance, transport, healthcare, real estate, taxis, lottery, casinos, etc.), cross-check the industry-specific invoice-timing rules under Article 9 of Decree 254/2026/ND-CP to avoid issuing invoices at the wrong time — a common source of administrative penalties.
- Prepare a plan for handling remaining paper invoices and receipts before 31 December 2026, and a transition plan to electronic receipts from 1 January 2027.
This article was prepared by TrustlineAX based on the Law on Tax Administration No. 108/2025/QH15, Decree No. 254/2026/ND-CP, and Circular No. 91/2026/TT-BTC. It is for general reference only and does not replace the original legal texts or specialized tax advice for individual circumstances.