To: Vietnam Railway Transport Service JSC.
(Address: No.120 Dinh Cong street, Hoang Mai District, Hanoi,
TIN: 0100105207)

Below is response of Department of Taxation of Hanoi to Official Dispatch No. 165/CV-TCKT dated 03/08/2017 of Vietnam Railway Transport Service JSC. (VRTS) regarding VAT declaration and issuance of VAT invoices for payments on behalf of customers:

- Pursuant to Circular No. 26/2015/TT-BTC dated 27/02/2015 of the Ministry of Finance on VAT and tax administration in the Government's Decree No. 12/2015/ND-CP dated 12/2/2015 elaborating the Law on Amendments to tax laws and decrees, and amendments to Circular No. 39/2014/TT-BTC dated 31/3/2014 of the Ministry of Finance on invoices for goods sale and service provision.

+ At Clause 7 of Article 3, which amends Article 16 of Circular No. 39/2014/TT-BTC on invoicing rules:

“Article 3

... 7. Article 16 is amended as follows:

a) Point b Clause 1 of Article 16 (amended in Clause 3 Article 5 of Circular No. 119/2014/TT-BTC) is amended as follows:

"When selling goods and services, including those used for trade promotion, advertising, samples, goods and services used for donation, exchange, or paid as salaries (except for goods internally circulated or internally used to proceed production), the seller must issue invoices.

…”

Pursuant to Circular No. 219/2013/TT-BTC dated 31/12/2013 of the Ministry of Finance providing guidance on implementation of the Law on Value-added Tax and the Government's Decree No. 209/2013/ND-CP dated 18/12/2013 elaborating and providing guidance on implementation of some Articles of the Law on Value-added tax

+ At Point d Clause 4 Article 5 on cases of in which VAT declaration and payment are exempted

"Article 5. Cases of exemption from declaring and paying VAT

... 7. Other cases:

Taxpayers are not required to declare and pay tax in the following cases:

...d) The delegated payments that are not related to the sale of goods/services of the taxpayer."

Pursuant to the aforementioned regulations, when VRTS has agreements with its customers to make payments on their behalf such as delivery order (D/O) fees, terminal handling charges (THC), CSDT, inspection fees, container storage cost, parking charges, etc., the suppliers have to issue invoices which bear the names and TINs of the customers. VRTS shall not declare and deduct input VAT regarding invoices bearing these customers' names. When collected the paid amounts from the customers, VRTS is not required to issue invoices and is only required to issue receipt vouchers as per regulations.

In case the suppliers have issue invoices bearing VRTS's name and TIN, VRTS shall request the suppliers to withdraw these invoices in order to issue other invoices bearing the customers on behalf of which VRTS made the payments. In case VRTS and the customers do not withdraw the issued invoices, VRTS shall issue VAT invoices and calculate VAT as per regulations when collecting the paid amounts from the customers.

Difficulties that arise during the implementation of this Circular should be reported by VRTS to Tax Audi Division No. 3 for guidance.

For your information and compliance.

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