After switching to using electronic invoices, many business households believe that just creating and sending invoices to customers is enough to fulfill their obligations. Invoice data storage is often underestimated, especially for small households, without specialized accountants and mainly operating on phones or personal computers.
In fact, according to legal regulations on taxes and invoices, issuing new invoices is only part of the obligation. Electronic invoices must also be stored fully, safely and traceable throughout the prescribed legal period. Data loss due to equipment changes, software errors or failure to back up does not give rise to the right to "exempt" from this obligation.
According to the provisions of the Law on Tax Administration and guiding documents, electronic invoices must be stored for at least 10 years, ensuring data integrity and traceability when requested by competent authorities.
This means that business households not only need to store invoices, but also must ensure that data is not deleted, lost or unable to be accessed during the storage period. Storing invoices only on a personal device, not backing up or not using a stable storage system poses a risk of violations.
Fines for not storing enough invoices as prescribed
According to Decree 125/2020/ND-CP, amended and supplemented by Decree 310/2025/ND-CP, acts of not storing, storing incompletely or losing electronic invoice data may be subject to administrative penalties.
Specifically, business households may be:
- A fine of 8 – 15 million VND if losing, burning, or damaging electronic invoices due to not ensuring storage conditions as prescribed;
- A fine of 5 - 10 million VND if electronic invoices cannot be provided when a competent authority requests inspection.
This fine is applied even if the business household does not have tax evasion and does not incur the tax to be recovered.
Losing invoice data is no different from not making an invoice
From a legal perspective, it is necessary to clearly distinguish between not issuing invoices and having issued but not being able to store invoices. Not issuing invoices is a violation of the obligation to record revenue, has a higher penalty frame and is directly associated with the risk of tax evasion.
Meanwhile, losing data or not ensuring invoice storage is a violation of the obligation to manage and preserve tax records. Even if it does not change the amount of tax payable, this act is still penalized because it disrupts the ability of the management agency to check and compare data.
When liability mitigation is considered
The Law on Tax Administration allows consideration of force majeure situations such as natural disasters, fires, widespread technical incidents affecting the storage system. However, if business households do not have backup measures, do not sign storage contracts with electronic invoice service providers or lose data due to subjectivity, penalties are still justified.
In fact, many cases of data loss arise from changing phones, replacing computers or deleting applications without backing up, these reasons are not considered force majeure.
Standardizing storage to avoid risk of being fined
To limit the risk of being penalized, business households need to review the entire process of electronic invoice storage. Choosing a supplier with a centralized storage system, automatic backup and stable access is an important factor. At the same time, it is necessary to periodically check invoice data, especially after changing equipment or updating software.
