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New invoice law keeps printing houses busy
Local printing houses have become overwhelmed with orders to print invoices ever since a new decree stipulated that most businesses must print their own invoices instead of buying them from tax agencies.
Under the decree, which becomes effective in January next year, companies are allowed to print the so-called red invoices that serve as official proof of commercial transactions for taxes and other purposes. The decree also allows them to use electronic invoices.
The decree states that tax agencies will continue to sell invoices until the end of next year to non-commercial organisations, small-sized businesses and those in poor areas that cannot afford to print invoices.
Nguyen Hai Minh, Director of the Finance Printing Company's HCM City branch, said his branch was receiving about 1,000 calls a day from businesses to ask for invoice printing quotations.
By November 18, the branch had signed contracts with more than 1,200 companies.
Tran Quoc Lam, Director of the HCM City-based Nguyen Xuong Thinh Trade and Production Company, said a large number of companies that placed orders for printing invoices had overburdened his company.
Thousands of companies are now ordering invoices because the Ministry of Finance early this month issued a document altering details in the invoice-printing guidance issued in September, according to printing firms.
The Finance Printing Company's HCM City branch alone has about 600 client companies that have had to adjust their invoice forms.
Nguyen Thi Bach Mai, Head of the HCM City Tax Department's Seal Division, said under the Ministry of Information and Communications'regulation issued in October, printing firms were only allowed to print invoices when they were granted licences from agencies.
However, the regulation does not specify which agencies can issue the licences.
This week, the HCM City Tax Department would publish a list of printing firms that have licenses to print invoices, she said.
Under current regulation, tax agencies will fine companies VND4-15 million ($200-$769) if they find that those companies used printing firms without the proper licences. Because the cost of printing invoices is higher than buying them from tax agencies, many companies are waiting until the end of the year to place orders, leading to additional work at printers.
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