On October 17, 2024, the Bình Định Provincial Tax Department issued Official Letter No. 3892/CTBDI-TTHT in response to the South Central Coast Agricultural Science and Technology Institute regarding the "preservation and storage of electronic invoices". Accordingly, the tax authority clarified that the responsibility for preserving and storing electronic invoices lies with the entity issuing the electronic invoices, not with the tax authority. Therefore, the ability to retrieve invoices from the entity's account in the electronic invoice system does not exempt the entity from its obligation to store invoices. The entity must download, store, and ensure the integrity of all electronic invoices. In case the entity fails to store and provide invoices upon the tax authority's request for inspection purposes, the entity will be subject to administrative penalties.
Accordingly, the fact that a business's electronic invoices are stored on the tax authority's system does not mean that the business is exempt from storing invoices; businesses are still responsible for storing, preserving electronic invoices and being ready to provide them upon request from the tax authority. Businesses should take note of this to ensure strict compliance.
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