Question:
I, as an individual, have rented assets to a company at a monthly rate exceeding 100 million Vietnamese Dong. I have declared and paid VAT, personal income tax (TNCN), and business license tax fully, and I have a business registration certificate. I requested the tax office to issue invoices to provide to the company, but they refused and guided me to follow Circular 96. The company is only using lease contracts and payment receipts for leased assets to account for expenses. Is this correct? Are there any risks for the business when accounting for expenses in this way? If the lessee wants invoices, can the relevant authorities provide them?
Answer:
Based on Article 4 of Circular No. 96/2015/TT-BTC dated June 22, 2015, by the Ministry of Finance, guiding corporate income tax (CIT) (effective from August 6, 2015, and applicable to CIT calculation for the year 2015), which amends and supplements Article 6 of Circular No. 78/2014/TT-BTC (amended and supplemented in Clause 2 of Article 6 of Circular No. 119/2014/TT-BTC and Article 1 of Circular No. 151/2014/TT-BTC):
In the case where a company leases assets from an individual to serve its production and business activities, and the lease contract stipulates that the rent includes all related taxes, and the lessor is responsible for declaring and directly paying taxes to the tax authority, as of the effective date of Circular No. 96/2015/TT-BTC, the documents used to determine deductible expenses are the lease contract and payment receipts for leased assets. In case the lessor does not declare and pay taxes, the tax authority will handle the tax collection from the lessor.
