DECREE NO. 310/2025/ND-CP: DETAILED REGULATIONS AND INCREASED PENALTIES FOR ISSUING INVOICES AT AN INCORRECT TIME AND FAILING TO ISSUE INVOICES

On 02 December 2025, the Government promulgated Decree No. 310/2025/ND-CP (“Decree 310”), amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 125/2020/ND-CP (“Decree 125”) dated 19 October 2020 of the Government on administrative penalties for tax and invoice violations. In general, Decree 310 provides detailed regulations on acts of issuing invoices at an incorrect time and failing to issue invoices, and at the same time increases administrative penalties for such acts. In practice, issuing invoices at an incorrect time and failing to issue invoices are issues that enterprises frequently encounter (whether “intentional” or due to “force majeure”). Therefore, enterprises need to pay special attention and comply strictly with the regulations.

1. No penalties imposed on individuals for failure/late notification or update of tax registration information in accordance with citizen identification cards

Decree 310 inherits the provisions of Decree 125, under which no penalties shall be imposed on: individuals who fail to notify or notify late changes to information in tax registration dossiers regarding taxpayer addresses beyond the prescribed time limit due to changes in administrative boundaries under Resolutions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly or Resolutions of the National Assembly; income-paying organizations that notify late changes in information when personal income taxpayers who authorize finalization of personal income tax have changes in information according to citizen identification cards or electronic citizen identification; non-business individuals who have been granted personal income tax codes and are late in updating information according to citizen identification cards or electronic citizen identification.

2. Taxpayers are not subject to the aggravating circumstance of “repeated violations” if multiple acts of the same tax declaration violation are committed on the same day

Under Decree 125, if a taxpayer simultaneously commits multiple instances of the same violation in declaration, submission of dossiers, or tax payment, it is considered repeated violations and penalized for one act with an aggravating circumstance.

Decree 310 maintains the principle of imposing penalties for one act of declaration, dossier submission, or tax payment at the highest fine level among all violations committed on the same day, and does not apply the “aggravating circumstance” to such act. In practice, incorrect declarations at a single time/on a single day often arise from technical or professional factors of the tax staff at the taxpayer’s unit. Therefore, not applying aggravating circumstances will reduce the financial burden on units, especially small and medium-sized enterprises or business households—which often do not have dedicated accounting departments or have limited accounting capacity.

At the same time, Decree 310 introduces principles for handling cases where a unit commits multiple acts of issuing incorrect invoices or failing to issue invoices and is penalized in a single case; penalties shall be imposed according to the fine bracket corresponding to the number of violating invoices. This is consistent with the new penalty provisions for the corresponding acts newly supplemented in this Decree.

3. Clarification of violations of obligations to provide information to tax authorities by organizations and individuals subject to penalties

Decree 310 clarifies a number of violations related to the provision of information by organizations and individuals to tax authorities that are subject to penalties, including:

a) Providing inaccurate information / failing to provide information related to assets, rights, and obligations regarding assets of taxpayers held by such organizations or individuals; information and documents related to the determination of tax obligations of taxpayers as prescribed by law or at the request of tax authorities;

b) Providing inaccurate information / failing to provide information related to taxpayers’ accounts at credit institutions, the State Treasury, or branches of foreign banks as prescribed by law or at the request of tax authorities;

c) Providing inaccurate information / failing to provide information related to salaries, wages, or income of taxpayers held by such organizations or individuals as prescribed by law or at the request of tax authorities;

d) Colluding with or covering up for taxpayers’ tax evasion, or failing to implement decisions on tax administrative enforcement.

The penalty framework for violations of information provision obligations remains unchanged at VND 6–16 million; however, it clearly distinguishes between two types of acts. Specifically, providing inaccurate information is subject to fines ranging from VND 6–10 million, while failing to provide information or colluding/covering up tax evasion or failing to implement tax enforcement decisions is subject to fines ranging from VND 10–16 million.

4. Increased penalties and clearer classification of penalty brackets for issuing invoices at an incorrect time and failing to issue invoices

Decree 125 stipulates penalties for issuing invoices at an incorrect time ranging only from a warning to a maximum fine of VND 8,000,000, and penalties for failing to issue invoices up to a maximum of VND 20,000,000; and it does not clearly stipulate specific penalty brackets.

Decree 310 provides that:
(+) penalty levels are significantly increased compared to Decree 125;
(++) penalty brackets are clearly classified to serve as a basis for penalties;
(+++) in principle, acts of issuing invoices at an incorrect time and failing to issue invoices in accordance with the law are all subject to penalties (regardless of whether they lead to delayed fulfillment of tax obligations); and
(++++) separate penalty levels are stipulated for goods and services used for promotion, advertising, samples; goods and services used for giving, gifting, exchanging, paying in lieu of wages to employees, and internal consumption (excluding goods internally circulated to continue the production process) (“Promotional Goods”), specifically as follows:

Decree 310 takes effect from 16 January 2026.

Transitional provisions are implemented as follows:

• In cases where administrative violations of tax or invoices were completed before the effective date of this Decree, the provisions of the legal documents on administrative penalties for tax and invoice violations effective at the time the violations were committed shall apply.

• In cases where administrative violations of tax or invoices were ongoing before the effective date of this Decree and are detected after the effective date of this Decree, the provisions of this Decree shall apply.

• For administrative violations of tax or invoices that were penalized before the effective date of this Decree but where individuals or organizations are still filing complaints or initiating lawsuits, such cases shall be resolved in accordance with the legal provisions on administrative penalties for tax and invoice violations and other relevant legal provisions effective at the time the violations were committed.