On the Government Portal, Ms. N.T. H in Hung Yen said that her company operates in the field of preschool education.
Every month, the company collects tuition fees and meal money from students, and also makes value-added invoices for these fees.
Ms. H asked, if her company collects meal money from students and then organizes cooking themselves, is this meal money not subject to value-added tax?
In case the company only collects and spends meal money on behalf of students, how should the company issue invoices and account for them?
Regarding this issue, Hung Yen Provincial Tax Department has the following opinions:
Clause 13, Article 5 of the Value Added Tax Law No. 48/2024/QH15 stipulates:
Subjects not subject to tax are teaching and vocational training activities according to the provisions of the law on education and vocational education".
Clause 7, Article 4 of Decree No. 181/2025/ND-CP of the Government stipulates:
Article 4. Subjects not subject to tax include:
Teaching and vocational training activities according to the provisions of law on education and vocational education. In case teaching and vocational training institutions have collections and expenditures on behalf of others, they are not subject to value-added tax; goods and services provided by organizations and individuals to teaching and vocational training institutions are subject to value-added tax according to regulations".
Clause 3, Article 9 of the 2024 Value Added Tax Law stipulates the value-added tax rate as follows:
The 10% tax rate applies to goods and services not specified in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article, including services provided by foreign suppliers without permanent establishments in Vietnam to organizations and individuals in Vietnam through e-commerce channels and digital platforms".
Clause 1, Article 4 of Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP stipulating invoices and documents (amended and supplemented at point a, clause 3, Article 1 of Decree No. 70/2025/ND-CP of the Government) stipulates:
Article 4. Principles for making, managing, and using invoices and documents are as follows:
When selling goods and providing services, sellers must make invoices to deliver to buyers (including cases of goods and services used for promotions, advertising, sample goods; goods and services used for giving, gifting, exchanging, paying salaries on behalf of employees and internal consumption (except for goods circulated internally to continue the production process); exporting goods in the form of lending, borrowing or returning goods) and cases of making invoices as prescribed in Article 19 of this Decree.
Invoices must fully record the content as prescribed in Article 10 of this Decree. In case of using electronic invoices, they must follow the standard data format of the tax authority as prescribed in Article 12 of this Decree".
Based on the above regulations, Hung Yen Provincial Tax Department answers according to the following principles:
In case teaching and vocational training institutions have collections and expenditures on behalf of others, collections and expenditures on behalf of others are not subject to value-added tax.
Hung Yen Provincial Tax Department replied so that she would know and implement it in accordance with current legal regulations.
