The worry of "empty" documents of billion-VND business households
Recently, Ms. N.T. H - owner of a scrap business with a revenue of more than 3 billion VND per year - sent a petition about problems in preparing input documents. Ms. H's industry characteristic is purchasing cardboard from street collectors, small retail stores or business households with revenues below 500 million VND/year.
Our input sources mainly come from freelance workers or small gathering points, they are completely unable to issue invoices. This makes it seriously difficult for us to determine the actual cost to calculate taxes, even though the output revenue is very large" - Ms. H expressed concern about the legality of these expenses.
Solutions from goods purchase lists
Responding to this issue, the Basic Tax Department of 7 provinces of Ninh Binh has provided specific guidance based on the latest regulations to remove bottlenecks for businesses and business households.
According to the Tax authority, based on the provisions of Decree 68/2026/ND-CP and Circular 152/2025/TT-BTC, business households can still determine input costs through the preparation of goods purchase lists.
Conditions and procedures include:
Applicable when purchasing goods from business households, individual businesses with revenue below 500 million VND/year or individuals directly collecting without invoices.
Requirements for the List: Must clearly state basic information including the seller's name, address, citizen identification number or identification information of the seller; name of goods, quantity, value of purchased goods and form of payment.
Attached documents: Business households need to keep all related documents such as goods scales, purchase receipts and especially payment documents as a basis for comparison.
Notes on payment: For payments each time with a value of 5 million VND or more, non-cash payments (transfers) must be made to be included in the deductible expenses when determining personal income tax.
Understand correctly to avoid post-inspection risks
For business households to perform correctly, these professional terms can be interpreted in common language as follows:
Purchase statement: This is a "replacement declaration" for the red invoice. Instead of the seller giving you the invoice, you make a list of people you have purchased goods to report to the tax authority.
Deductible expenses: These are the amounts you spent to buy goods, pay salaries, or run a business. This amount will be deducted from total revenue before tax calculation, helping you only pay tax on the real "profit".
Identity information: You need to ask for the ID card number or identification code of the street vendor. This helps the tax authority verify that the purchase and sale is real, avoiding cases where business households "fictitiously" cover expenses to evade taxes.
The Tax authority recommends that Ms. H and similar business households should proactively complete dossiers and documents right at the time of transaction to ensure their rights when tax finalization.
