According to the provisions of Decree 254/2026/ND-CP, business households using Mid-Autumn cakes as gifts for customers to serve business activities still have to create electronic invoices, except in cases subject to another invoice exemption case according to legal regulations.
Based on Clause 1, Article 4 of Decree 254/2026/ND-CP on the principles of establishing, managing, and using electronic invoices and documents, when selling goods and providing services, sellers must make electronic invoices to deliver to buyers.
This regulation includes goods and services used for promotions, advertising, sample goods; goods and services used for giving, donating, gifting, exchanging, paying salaries for employees and internal consumption; exporting goods in the form of lending, borrowing and cases of invoicing according to the regulations of the Minister of Finance, except for cases where electronic invoices are not required according to Article 7 of this Decree.
Electronic invoices must be in standard data format and fully record the content according to the provisions of tax law, accounting law and Article 10 of Decree 254/2026/ND-CP, ensuring full and truthful reflection of the content of arising economic nghiệp vụ. The seller is legally responsible for the accuracy of the invoice made.
Giving Mid-Autumn cakes to customers still requires invoicing
According to Clause 1, Article 4 of Decree 254/2026/ND-CP, Mid-Autumn cakes are used to give gifts to customers in cases where goods are used for giving, gifting, or gifting.
Therefore, business households using Mid-Autumn cakes to give to customers to serve business operations still have to create electronic invoices. Not collecting money from customers for the number of cakes given as gifts does not change the regulations on invoicing for goods given, gifted, and gifted.
Meanwhile, Article 7 of Decree 254/2026/ND-CP stipulates cases where electronic invoices are not required. These cases include a number of activities of business households and individual businesses such as selling goods and services in the case of preparing a list of purchases of goods and services; leasing real estate; providing a number of digital information content products and services to organizations and individuals abroad; acting as a lottery agent, insurance agent, multi-level marketing agent in cases where businesses have deducted tax according to regulations.
Article 7 also stipulates a number of fees and revenues from reinsurance activities, receiving deposits, financial activities, selling debts, foreign currency transactions and derivative products; capital contribution in assets; assets transferred between the parent company and dependent member units; machinery and equipment lent as fixed assets and tools and equipment serving goods processing in the prescribed case.
Cases of goods and services used to continue the production and business process; goods and services exported or provided by business establishments to serve production and business activities and revenues not related to the sale of goods and provision of services of business establishments are also cases that do not require the use of electronic invoices.
The business household giving Mid-Autumn cakes to customers does not fall into the cases that do not require the use of electronic invoices mentioned above. At the same time, Mid-Autumn cakes are used to give and gift to customers in cases where goods are used for giving, gifting, or gifting according to Clause 1, Article 4.
Thus, business households when using Mid-Autumn cakes as gifts for customers still have to create electronic invoices according to regulations, except in cases that fall into another case of exemption from invoice creation according to legal regulations.
For business households with revenue below 1 billion VND/year, it is currently not mandatory to register to use electronic invoices with codes from tax authorities or electronic invoices generated from cash registers if there is no need to use them.
Giving Mid-Autumn cakes to relatives without raising the issue of issuing invoices
If the Mid-Autumn cake is just a personal gift, not serving business activities, for example, if the household owner buys it as a gift for relatives or friends, it is not considered goods used for gifting in business activities.
Therefore, this case does not raise the issue of issuing invoices.
Thus, the point to be determined is the purpose of giving cakes. If the Mid-Autumn Festival cake is used to give to customers to serve business activities, business households still have to create electronic invoices according to regulations. Conversely, if the cake is just a personal gift, not serving business activities, then the issue of issuing invoices is not raised.
