When issuing an electronic invoice (“E-invoice”), errors can occur in the invoicing process. The accountant must base on each specific error case to apply the correct way of adjustment according to regulations

I. An overview of how to handle the incorrectly written e-invoices is as follows:

- If not send for the client, is allowed to cancel incorrectly written e-invoices and reissue a new one;
- If the incorrectly written e-invoices were sent to the client, then determine whether the e-invoice declared tax or not:

• If not declared tax: Make a cancellation minutes=> Issue new invoice;
• If declared tax: Make adjustment minutes => Issue adjustment invoice;
• For the case of wrong company name, address but correct tax code, only minutes of adjustment are required.

II. How to adjust, cancel or reissue an e-invoice when there is an error

Accountants need to handle the incorrectly written e-invoices in the following cases:

1.  The issued e-invoices contain errors but have not been sent to the buyer

- According to Official Letter No. 3441 / TCT-CS dated August 29, 2019, of the General Department of Taxation on electronic invoices:

In case the used e-invoice contains errors but has not yet been sent to the buyer, the seller shall cancel the used e-invoice and send a new e-invoice to the buyer.

2. To handle incorrectly written e-invoices in case e-invoices have been sent to buyers
2.1. Write the wrong address, company name

According to the provisions of Point b, Clause 7, Article 3 of Circular 26/2015 / TT-BTC, when the invoice contains errors in the buyer's address but the correct tax code, the parties only need to make minutes of the adjustment, do not re-issue adjustment invoices.

According to Official Letter No. 11624 / CT-TTHT dated October 14, 2019, of the Tax Department of Ho Chi Minh City. Regarding invoices, this Regulation applies at the same time to E-invoices.

• For an e-invoice with the wrong address and name of the company, the two parties only need minutes of adjustment of the invoice

2.2.  How to handle an e-invoice that incorrectly writes the remaining items in specific cases:
The handling of incorrectly written e-invoices when sending e-invoices to buyers, then handled by adjusting, canceling, and reissuing depending on the declared tax or not yet, there will be different handling:

2.2.1 In case an e-invoice has been issued and sent to the buyer but goods or service have not been delivered/ or an e-invoice has been issued and sent to the buyer, the seller and the buyer have not declared tax:

If a mistake is found, it will be handled by canceling the incorrectly written e-invoice and then issuing a new one, specifically as follows:

• Step 1: Seller and buyer confirm the error and agree to cancel incorrectly written e-invoices 
• Step 2: The seller issues a new e-invoice in accordance with regulations to send it to the buyer. On the new e-invoice, there must be the words "This invoice replaces the e-invoice No:..., symbol:..., sent date: … ."

2.2.2. Where an invoice has been made and sent to the buyer, goods are delivered or services provided, the seller and the buyer have declared, after that, when detecting errors, it will be handled by adjusting invoices, specifically as follows:

• Step 1: Seller and buyer must make a written agreement with electronic signatures of both parties, clearly stating the error
• Step 2: The seller issues an electronic invoice to adjust errors, clearly stating the adjustment (increase, decrease) of the number of goods, the selling price, the value-added tax rate, the value-added tax amount for the e-invoices No.: ...,  Symbol: ...

•  Based on the adjusted e-invoices, the seller and buyer shall make an adjusted declaration in accordance with the current law on tax administration and invoices.

a) The e-invoice for which tax is declared is then found to be error information such as Tax code, name of goods, service, unit of calculation, date. These are errors in the content that do not affect the amount, so you cannot increase or decrease, but you can only adjust for the correct content:

• Step 1: Issue an adjustment minute of the invoice (both parties sign to confirm the error)
• Step 2: The seller issues an invoice to adjust the incorrectly written content to the correct content, clearly stating the wrong content, correct content for the e-invoice No. ..., Symbol: ...

b) The e-invoice is declared tax only then found to be an error which is detected incorrectly in quantity, unit price, amount, tax rate, tax amount, plus goods, total payment. This is an error related to the number or amount, the accountant needs to make an increase or decrease adjustment: If the error is a higher value, it is necessary to reduce the adjustment and vice versa.

• Step 1: Make an invoice adjustment minutes (both parties sign to confirm the error)
• Step 2: The seller issues an increase or decrease invoice, clearly stating the adjustment (increase or decrease) of the number of goods, the selling price, the VAT rate, and the VAT amount for the e-invoice No. ..., symbol: ...

c) Error adjustment of an e-invoice requires both incremental adjustment and reduction adjustment:

According to Official Letter No. 13313 / CT-TTHT dated 11/11/2019 of HCMC Tax Department regarding e-invoices, the following steps are taken:

“4. Guidance on handling issued invoices in some specific cases is provided in Appendix 4 to this Circular.

As mentioned, the Company made mistakes in electronic invoicing (service fees not subject to VAT change to taxable at the rate of 10%), however, because the Company's software does not make adjustments to reduce non-taxable revenue and increase the amount of VAT corresponding to the unchanged total payment on an invoice, thus, the Company can adjust the above-mentioned error with 2 invoices but must fully comply with the adjustment procedures as prescribed in Article 9 of Circular No. 32/2011 / TT-BTC and Article 20. Circular No. 39/2014 / TT-BTC, minutes of agreement on the adjustment between the two parties are prepared and signed directly or electronically. ”
3. Invoice adjustment minutes:
To ensure principles, the record on adjustment of e-invoices must contain the signatures of the seller and the buyer:

• If the buyer has a legal e-signature, the adjustment record shall be made and e-signed.
• Conversely, if the buyer does not have an e-signature, the adjustment minutes must be made in writing and signed directly.

 Note:

• The canceled e-invoice must be archived for search by the competent state agency.
• The seller does not need to make an invoice cancellation minutes in case 1
• The above treatment applies to all cases of errors (Except for the wrong company name or address, but with correct MST, do as item 1).
• An adjustment invoice must not contain negative numbers (-).

Legal grounds:

- Circular 32/2011 / TT-BTC.

- Circular 26/2015 / TT-BTC.

- Circular No. 39/2014 / TT-BTC

- Official Dispatch No. 3441 / TCT-CS dated August 29, 2019.

- Official Dispatch No. 11624 / CT-TTHT dated October 14, 2019.

- Official Dispatch No. 13313 / CT-TTHT dated 11/11/2019.