The Government Information Portal published a reflection from Ms. Pham Thi Thu Yen, highlighting current discrepancies in understanding between service providers and users regarding the agreed “conventional period” for calculating service provision.
Specifically, some argue that only services listed under point a, clause 4, Article 9 of Decree No. 123/2020/NĐ-CP can have an agreed conventional period.
For services not included in this list, if provided on a monthly basis, the service provider must issue an invoice on the last day of the calendar month, rather than the actual service completion date as per the contract.
For instance, in a monthly apartment rental agreement starting on June 25, 2025, and ending on July 24, 2025, the current interpretation requires the enterprise to issue invoices on June 30, 2025, and July 31, 2025 (the last days of the calendar months), instead of July 24, 2025—the actual service completion date.
To ensure legal clarity in determining service completion and invoicing, Ms. Yen urges authorities to clarify the scope and application of the “conventional period” agreement between service providers and users, preventing misinterpretations of invoicing regulations.
The Tax Department responds as follows:
Based on point a, clause 4, Article 9 of Decree No. 123/2020/NĐ-CP dated October 19, 2020 (amended by point b, clause 6, Article 1 of Decree No. 70/2025/NĐ-CP):
“a) For large-volume, frequent sales or services requiring data reconciliation between providers and clients, including: direct support for air transport, aviation fuel supply, electricity supply (excluding cases under point h), rail transport support, water supply, television services, TV advertising, e-commerce, postal and delivery services (including agency, collection, and payment services), telecommunications (including value-added services), logistics, IT services (excluding cases under point b), banking (excluding loans), international money transfers, securities, online lotteries, road usage fee collection between investors and service providers, and other cases as guided by the Minister of Finance, invoices must be issued upon data reconciliation completion, but no later than the 7th day of the following month or within 7 days of the agreed conventional period. The conventional period for calculating service volume is based on the agreement between the provider and the buyer.”
Based on clause 1, Article 6 of Circular No. 32/2025/TT-BTC dated May 31, 2025, issued by the Minister of Finance on invoice and document guidelines:
“1. Large-volume, frequent sales or services requiring data reconciliation, as per point a, clause 4, Article 9 of Decree No. 123/2020/NĐ-CP (amended by point b, clause 6, Article 1 of Decree No. 70/2025/NĐ-CP), include: products under credit institution laws, securities laws, and commercial laws as defined in the VAT Law, industrial catering services, commodity exchange services, credit information services, and taxi services for corporate clients.”
According to the above regulations, for services under point b, clause 6, Article 1 of Decree No. 70/2025/NĐ-CP and clause 1, Article 6 of Circular No. 32/2025/TT-BTC, invoices must be issued upon data reconciliation completion, but no later than the 7th day of the following month or within 7 days of the agreed conventional period (based on the provider-buyer agreement for service volume calculation).
