Công văn 2826/TCT-PCCS

To: The Departments of Taxation of central-affiliated cities and provinces

The General Department of Taxation has recently received inquiries from several Tax Department and enterprises about use of carved signature seals on VAT invoices and declarations to be submitted to tax authorities instead of handwritten signatures of representatives of businesses.

General Department of Taxation hereby gives the following opinions:

- At Clause 1 Article 20 of the Law on accounting No. 03/2003/QH11 dated June 17, 2003 specified: “Accounting vouchers must be properly signed. Signatures on accounting vouchers must be written with ink pen. Accounting vouchers must not be signed in red ink or with carved signature seals. A person's signature on accounting vouchers must be consistent.”

- At Clause 4 Article 10 of Decree No. 110/2004/ND-CP dated April 8, 2004 of the Government on work of records and archives specified: “Do not use pencil, red ink or other types of easily faded ink upon document signing.”

Based on the above provisions, the competent persons (or authorized persons) of the business must directly sign with ink pen (except for cases where electronic signatures are permitted in accordance with the regulations on electronic transactions) on accounting documents and tax documents.

The General Department of Taxation hereby request the Tax Departments of provinces to re-inspect accounting documents, tax declarations and other transaction documents sent by businesses to tax authorities and follow these instructions:

1. The invoices, accounting documents, tax declarations and other transaction documents sent by businesses to tax authorities that are signed ultra vires (According to Official Dispatch No. 1498/TCT-PCCS dated April 24, 2006 of General Department of Taxation) shall not be regarded as lawful invoices, accounting documents and transaction documents.

2. The invoices, accounting documents, tax declarations and other transaction documents sent by the business to tax authority shall not be regarded as lawful if they bear carved signature seals, regardless of the signers/although they are signed by competent persons.

3. In any of the cases above:

- The tax authority shall not use invoices and accounting documents specified in Point 1 and Point 2 above as lawful documents for determining the tax-related rights and obligations of the business.

- Regarding unlawful tax declarations and other transaction documents specified in Point 1 and Point 2 above, the tax authority shall request the sender to resubmit it. The date the tax authority receives the resubmitted document is considered the date of receipt of the document. If a document is resubmitted after prescribed deadline, the tax authority shall impose a penalty for late submission according to the provisions of law.

Tax Departments of provinces shall implement this document.