What every invoice must show
- The invoice name, the form-number symbol and the invoice symbol (ký hiệu mẫu số hóa đơn and ký hiệu hóa đơn), and the sequential invoice number.
- Both tax codes: the seller's name, address and tax code, and the buyer's name, address and tax code. Where the buyer is a private individual, their personal identification number stands in for a tax code.
- VAT broken out by rate: the amount before VAT, the rate applied, the VAT total for each rate used, the total VAT, and the total payable including VAT.
- The seller's digital signature and the time it was applied, plus the tax authority's code if the invoice is a coded e-invoice. The buyer's digital signature is not required unless the parties have agreed otherwise.
Numbering, keeping and correcting invoices
The invoice number is a running number of up to 8 digits. It restarts at 1 on 1 January, or on the first day the invoice type is used, and ends on 31 December, and invoices must be issued in unbroken ascending order within each invoice symbol and form symbol. Where several outlets issue from one system, numbering follows the time of digital signing (Decree 254, Appendix, point 2).
The text of the invoice is in Vietnamese; foreign words go in brackets to the right or on a line below in a smaller size. Unaccented Vietnamese is allowed if it cannot be misread. Figures use Arabic digits, and amounts are in dong. The total payable is shown in figures and in Vietnamese words, except for a sale taken in foreign currency that is not converted to dong, where the total is shown in that currency and in words in the foreign language (Appendix, point 8).
Invoices are kept as electronic data for the period set by the accounting law, must stay complete and unaltered throughout, and must be printable or retrievable when an inspector asks (Article 5). A tax debtor can have the right to issue invoices suspended: from that decision the tax office stops issuing codes and treats uncoded and cash-register invoices as unlawful (Decree 252, Article 69).
Electronic invoicing in Vietnam
Compulsory, and has been for every business since 1 July 2022. The current rules are in Decree 254/2026/NĐ-CP and Circular 91/2026/TT-BTC, in force since 1 July 2026. Invoices are either coded by the tax authority or uncoded, and both are transmitted to the Tax Department in a standard XML format. Household and individual businesses with revenue over VND 1 billion a year, and anyone selling assets that require ownership registration, must use a coded e-invoice or a cash-register e-invoice connected live to the tax authority; smaller sellers may register voluntarily. A business that already uses coded or uncoded e-invoices is not forced onto a cash register as well. Decree 254/2026 also lists, for the first time in one place, the sales that need no invoice at all, including internal transfers, capital contributions in kind and lottery, insurance and multi-level-marketing agents whose tax has already been withheld.