Early morning at a local market in Hanoi usually starts very early. The sound of knives chopping bones, vendors calling out to customers, and the clicking of scales fill the air. Buyers stop by in a hurry, pay, and leave for work. Everything happens so fast.

At Nghia Tan market, a seafood vendor said she sells about 100 kg of seafood to 70–100 customers each morning from 6 AM to 9 AM. The seller weighs, preliminarily processes, and collects money simultaneously. As one customer leaves, another steps in.

“If I had to issue an invoice for every single customer like at a supermarket, customers would all leave,” she said. “Meanwhile, hiring an extra person just for data entry and invoicing would cost more than the profit of a small stall”.

This story raises a question: how to design regulations that ensure transparency while still matching the fast pace of small-scale daily trading.

Recently, the Ministry of Finance has been seeking opinions on a draft decree regarding electronic invoices and documents. A notable proposal is to allow household businesses with an annual revenue of VND3 billion or less to issue a summary electronic invoice at the end of the day for small transactions when buyers do not require an individual invoice.

According to the draft, transactions with the value of under VND50,000 each can be aggregated, and a general invoice can be issued at the end of the day. Sellers must still maintain detailed logs to provide upon request by authorities. This idea aims to reduce the procedural pressure on small-scale trading activities that occur with high frequency throughout the day.

However, some opinions suggest that the VND50,000 threshold is still quite low compared to reality. This amount is only equivalent to a bowl of pho or a few hundred grams of meat. Meanwhile, many daily retail transactions have long exceeded this level.

Some experts have proposed raising the threshold to around VND200,000, similar to previous regulations under Circular 39/2014. At that time, sellers only needed to maintain a retail log and issue a consolidated invoice at the end of the day, a simpler approach that better matches real trading practices.

When technical regulations do not align with everyday business rhythms, even well-intentioned policies can become difficult to implement. The issue of invoicing, therefore, is not just about procedures but about how policies are designed to fit economic realities.

The household business sector in Vietnam is in fact very large.

According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, in 2025 informal workers accounted for 63.1 percent of total employment. With a workforce of more than 52 million people, this means about 33 million Vietnamese are working outside the formal economy.

Most of them earn a living through small eateries, grocery shops, individual services or household businesses. These activities rarely appear in macroeconomic reports but sustain a large portion of society.

A closer look at the economic structure reveals an interesting fact: nearly one-third of Vietnam’s GDP is generated by small shops, family-run eateries and individual trading activities.

Currently, there are about 5 million non-agricultural household businesses nationwide. Tax policies and related regulations for this sector therefore directly affect the livelihoods of millions of families.

In many cases, the household economy also acts as a “safety valve” for the labor market. When businesses face difficulties or the economy fluctuates, many workers turn to small-scale trading to make a living. A family eatery, a grocery shop or a breakfast stall can become a fresh start for those who have just lost their jobs.

But this is also the most vulnerable sector.

According to the iPOS report (Vietnam F&B Market Report), in the first half of 2025 alone, more than 50,000 F&B outlets closed, a 7.1 percent decrease compared to the previous year. In Hanoi and HCMC specifically, the number of outlets decreased by over 11 percent.

Behind every closed door is usually a family losing its income and several workers losing their jobs. For the household economic sector, entering the market is quite easy, but exiting happens very quickly when costs rise or purchasing power drops.

Therefore, the policy environment for this sector is particularly important. In an economy where about 33 million people are still working informally, the story of the household economy is not just about tax revenue. It is also a story of jobs and livelihoods.

Lan Anh