DECREE 254/2026/ND-CP: NEW REGULATIONS TO 'REMOVE DIFFICULTIES' FOR USERS OF ELECTRONIC INVOICES AND DOCUMENTS

This week's newsletter marks the beginning of an in-depth series of articles on the field of Taxation, aimed at providing timely updates and resolving the most practical legal challenges faced during business operations. On June 30, 2026, the Government issued Decree No. 254/2026/ND-CP (“Decree 254”) providing detailed regulations on a number of articles and measures for the implementation of Law on Tax Administration No. 108/2025/QH15 regarding electronic invoices and electronic documents (“Law on Tax Administration 2025”), replacing Decree 123/2020/ND-CP (“Decree 123”). Decree 254 is an important legal framework for enterprises, business households, and individual businesses to comply with and properly implement regulations on electronic invoices and documents. Notable contents of Decree 254 are as follows:

1. Expanding the cases exempt from using electronic invoices

Decree 254 specifies cases that do not require the use of electronic invoices (previously, Decree 123 and Circular 32 only regulated cases where invoices were not required for internal asset rotation to continue production), including:

• Specific individual and business household groups (Clauses 1, 2, 3, Article 7): Purchasing goods/services with a list compiled under corporate income tax law; business households/individuals with income from real estate leasing; individuals providing digital content products/services to foreign organizations and individuals; and agents (lottery, insurance, multi-level marketing) whose taxes have been withheld at source by the managing enterprise.

• Financial, banking, and insurance service groups (Clause 4, Article 7): Invoice exemption for fees/income from reinsurance; deposit mobilization activities; transactions involving the issuance of certificates of deposit, primary securities, and valuable papers; debt selling activities, foreign currency transactions, and derivative financial products.

• Internal asset transfer and relocation groups (Clauses 5, 6, 7, Article 7): No invoice required when contributing capital with assets into economic organizations; transferring assets between parent companies and dependent accounting units (or between dependent units themselves); transferring assets during division, separation, consolidation, merger, or conversion of business type; and fixed assets or tools lent without charge to serve processing production.

• Internal consumption and non-sales revenue groups (Clause 8, Article 7): Applicable to goods and services released internally or self-provided to continue the production and business process; revenues from monetary compensation (including land compensation), bonuses, third-party claims in insurance, collection/payment on behalf of state agencies, and other financial revenues.

In general, regulations on cases where electronic invoices are not required bring convenience to enterprises, business households, and individual businesses, limiting unnecessary work. It should be noted that even though electronic invoices are not required, enterprises, business households, and individual businesses must still comply with other relevant regulations during their business operations and execution of the aforementioned transactions.

2. Not issuing invoices for contract performance deposits is now applicable to all types of services

Basically, Decree 254 inherits the regulations of Decree 123 regarding the timing of invoice issuance for the sale and export of goods.

Particularly for the timing of issuing invoices for service provision, Decree 254 introduces a fundamental adjustment compared to Decree 123, specifically:

• Decree 123 only allowed service providers in specific sectors: accounting, auditing, financial/tax consulting; valuation; surveying, technical design; supervisory consulting; and construction investment project formulation to collect deposits or advances to secure service contract performance without having to issue invoices at the time of collection.

• Meanwhile, Decree 254 stipulates a general principle: all service providers (without limitation on the types of services as before) are allowed to collect deposits in accordance with the Civil Code to secure the performance of service provision contracts without having to issue invoices at the time of collection. Note that collecting deposits to secure contract performance differs from collecting payments in advance or during service provision. Accordingly, if a service enterprise regulates it as an advance or early payment, the invoice issuance timing remains the time of money collection.

3. Adding cases where invoices can be issued later than the legally prescribed time

Decree 123 only allowed invoices to be issued later than the legally prescribed time in a single case where the tax authority's code-granting system encountered a failure. In addition, Decree 254 also supplements specific instructions on the timing of invoice issuance for several new services or services that were not clearly guided before, including:

Crypto asset services, carbon exchange transaction support services, maritime pilotage services, advertising services on electronic newspapers, digital technology services, digital platforms, information technology services (including intermediary payment services used on telecommunications and IT platforms, security services, industrial catering services, commodity exchange services, credit information services, passenger transport services (by taxi, contract cars, or two-wheeled motorcycles using transport connection support software in accordance with road laws) provided to customers who are enterprises or organizations.

Accordingly, for the above services, Decree 254 regulates that the invoice issuance timing is the time when data reconciliation between the parties (the service provider and the service user) is completed, but no later than the 7th day of the month following the month the service provision occurred, or no later than 07 days from the end of the conventional period (The conventional period serves as the basis for calculating the volume of goods/services provided based on the agreement between the seller/service provider and the buyer).

Decree 254 inherits the above principles and adds two cases where invoices can be issued later than the legally prescribed time, including:

• The first case: Force majeure events occur, including war, riots, or strikes causing production/business suspension, or risks not arising from the subjective fault or responsibility of the seller, whereby the seller or the tax authority cannot issue, grant codes, or transmit electronic invoice data within the deadline. Accordingly, the seller in this case is allowed to issue invoices within 03 working days from the date the incident is resolved.

• The second case: Sellers who do not have automatic invoice issuance software but generate transactions selling goods or providing services during night working hours in accordance with the Labor Code; in this case, the deadline for invoice issuance is the next working day.

The addition of these two cases allowing delayed invoice issuance has contributed to resolving practical difficulties for enterprises.

4. Cases where income-paying organizations are not required to issue personal income tax withholding documents

Decree 254 also inherits the regulations of Decree 123 on the timing of document issuance and supplements a number of more specific guidelines to create more favorable conditions for enterprises and business households:

• In case an individual authorizes tax finalization, the personal income tax withholding organization is not required to issue personal income tax withholding documents.

• For income of individual investors arising from securities transfer, capital investment, crypto asset transfer, gold bar transfer, income from royalties, commercial franchises, income from prizes, inheritances, or gifts, if such income has already been withheld and paid at source by the paying organization or tax withholding organization, the paying organization or tax withholding organization is not required to issue personal income tax withholding documents.

In general, besides inheriting the regulations of Decree 123, Decree 254 supplements many new points, prominent among which are the regulations mentioned above, contributing to removing difficulties and facilitating enterprises, organizations, business households, and individual businesses during the application and implementation of regulations on electronic invoices and documents.

Decree 254 takes effect from July 1, 2026./.