Chinese Electronic Invoices Without a Stamp

AI-generated cover illustration; not an actual invoice or transaction.

The invoice arrives as a clean electronic file. The seller's name is there, the total looks right, but the red company seal you expected is missing. Before sending it back, identify the invoice format. A Chinese electronic invoice can be valid without a visible seller's invoice seal.

That is particularly relevant to fully digitalized invoices, or 数电发票. They are not scanned paper invoices with a missing decoration. Their issuance and delivery are digital. Older electronic invoice types also have specific rules, so the answer cannot be reduced to “all PDFs need a stamp” or “electronic files never need checking.”

For an overseas buyer, the useful task is to establish what the file is, why its appearance differs, and whether its recorded information matches the purchase. This guide concerns common mainland Chinese supplier invoices, rather than every document called an invoice in international trade.

Start with the document's origin

A PDF extension does not identify an invoice type. It can contain an original electronic invoice, a scan of a paper invoice, or an image someone pasted into a new file. A printed sheet can likewise be either a paper invoice or a printout of an electronic one. The material in your hand does not settle the original format.

Look at the Chinese invoice title and ask how the issuer supplied it. Common fully digitalized titles include 电子发票（增值税专用发票） and 电子发票（普通发票）. The words in parentheses describe the category. Keep the original title when discussing the file with finance.

The State Taxation Administration's nationwide digital-invoice announcement identifies fully digitalized invoices as a type of electronic invoice with the same legal effect as paper invoices. It specifies a 20-digit invoice number and provides for delivery through the electronic invoice platform, email, QR codes and other stated methods.

A matching title and number format help you recognize the document. They do not authenticate it. Anyone reviewing a supplied file still needs to compare its information through the appropriate verification route. A convincing layout is no more decisive than a missing red mark.

Two different red marks

Buyers often refer to any red mark as the company stamp. Chinese invoice terminology distinguishes the national invoice supervision seal, 发票监制章, from the seller's invoice-specific seal, 发票专用章. The first relates to invoice administration; the second identifies the issuer's invoice seal.

The Invoice Administrative Measures address the national supervision seal separately from the requirement to stamp paper invoices with an invoice-specific seal. A general company chop on a commercial document is another object again. Do not use these terms interchangeably when asking the supplier for a correction.

If a colleague says a stamp is missing, ask which mark and on which invoice type. The seller may be explaining the absence of its invoice seal while the colleague is pointing to a different part of the page. A short, labelled screenshot can clarify the question, provided the original file is retained.

Neither a red image nor its colour proves authenticity. A pasted seal image can look convincing, while a properly issued digital invoice may lack the mark the buyer expected. The right response is to identify the form and verify the information, rather than to ask the supplier to make the page look more official.

Electronic signatures and older invoices

The move away from a visible seller seal did not begin only with fully digitalized invoices. The tax authority's explanation for electronic special VAT invoices, published in December 2020, says those invoices use electronic signatures instead of the original invoice-specific seal. It also describes viewing the original file and verifying the electronic signature with the applicable reader.

A separate Shanghai tax-authority answer explains the equivalent treatment for electronic ordinary VAT invoices issued through the specified public service platform. Its answer refers to that invoice system and its OFD format. It should not be expanded into a rule that every document labelled electronic has the same technical structure.

These references help explain an older attachment. They are not instructions to install an unfamiliar program from a link in a supplier's message. Use the official tax-authority route and current guidance for the relevant format. If you cannot open the original, ask the issuer for a usable download version and preserve the file already received.

A visible picture of a signature and a cryptographically verified electronic signature are different things. Likewise, a PDF reader showing an unknown signature status may be reporting a software or trust-configuration issue. It does not automatically prove a false invoice. Record the actual message and resolve the file or reader question before turning it into a conclusion about the transaction.

Keep the conclusion tied to the check performed. A signature check concerns the signed electronic file. An invoice-record lookup compares information with a tax-system record. A company search identifies the registered seller. These checks can complement one another, but a successful result in one does not silently complete the others.

This distinction matters when files have been converted. If someone prints an electronic original and scans it back to PDF, the new file does not preserve the original electronic signature merely because the page looks unchanged. Ask for the issued electronic file when that signature is relevant. The scan may still help you read invoice fields, but describe it accurately as a copy.

Fully digitalized invoices in practice

For a concrete issuer example, AWS China's digitalized fapiao guide explains that the seller-seal field is removed and stamping is not required. It also describes the replacement of separate invoice code and number fields with a 20-digit invoice number, and the simplification of buyer and seller information.

That helps explain why a genuine new-format document can appear unusually sparse to someone accustomed to older paper forms. Missing bank or address boxes may be a format change rather than a cropped page. Compare the actual document's required fields instead of demanding that the issuer recreate a historical layout.

AWS describes PDF and XML delivery by default, with its own support route for OFD. Tencent Cloud's invoice guidance, updated in March 2026, also discusses digital invoices, their downloadable formats and customer questions about unstamped printouts. These are practical issuer examples; their account menus and delivery arrangements do not apply to every Chinese seller.

In particular, do not infer from one issuer's move to digital-only delivery that all paper invoices everywhere have become invalid. Read the document you actually received and the rules relevant to it. Nationwide adoption of a digital format is not evidence that every older invoice should be replaced.

A printout stays a printout

A buyer prints a fully digitalized invoice for an internal approval folder. Finance then asks the supplier to stamp the sheet. In this hypothetical situation, the request treats the printout as if it were an originally issued paper invoice.

The Tianjin tax authority's explanation directly addresses this situation: the seller need not add its invoice-specific seal to the printed copy of the fully digitalized invoice, while the electronic file must also be retained for the stated tax-voucher use. This explains the Chinese document rule; it does not decide every overseas employer's expense procedure.

Send finance the original electronic file and the relevant explanation. If the team wants a readable printout for its own workflow, keep it linked to that original. Printing, signing or scanning the copy again should not silently replace the source document.

Now consider a different hypothetical case. The supplier says the original was a paper VAT invoice, but only a cropped photograph has been supplied. An absent seal in that image could be outside the crop or missing from the underlying paper. Request a complete copy and clarify the original document. The digital-invoice explanation does not resolve a question about a different format.

The check that matters

Once the format is understood, obtain the complete original attachment where available. Keep the invoice number, issue date, seller and purchaser details, and the required verification fields legible. Use the Chinese VAT invoice verification guide for the correct inputs; the amount required can depend on the invoice type.

Compare the returned information with the file, rather than stopping at a success label. The seller, purchaser, items and amounts should concern the document and purchase being reviewed. A genuine record for another order does not answer a question about yours.

For example, imagine that a buyer receives two attachments with the same filename. One is the original invoice; the other is a translated working copy made for finance. Retain both, but perform the check against the original and label the translation separately. A translated heading or rearranged field should not become evidence that the issuer changed the invoice.

Similarly, an emailed explanation saying that the invoice needs no stamp addresses its format. It does not confirm that the attached amount is correct. Finish the relevant comparisons before recording that the document has been checked.

If the lookup fails, distinguish a completed mismatch from an unreadable file, a copying error or an unavailable service. The missing seal does not supply the explanation for every failure. The invoice PDF guide covers file-handling problems; an issuer clarification may be needed when the source itself is incomplete.

Use the seller's Chinese name or USCC for a separate company search. The invoice number belongs in the invoice check, not the company search. Matching the issuer to a registered company is useful, but it does not establish that every salesperson using its name is authorised or that goods have been delivered.

ChinaValidate Invoice Verification can check supported mainland VAT invoices. Its result should be read alongside the original file and transaction details. There is no need to add an invented seal to make an electronic invoice fit an older visual expectation.

A clear reply to the issuer

Please confirm whether this is an original electronic invoice or a copy of a paper invoice. Please send the complete original downloadable file where available and identify the invoice type. Our question concerns the missing seller's invoice seal; we do not need an edited copy with a seal image added.

This request gives the supplier a specific issue to answer. If it confirms a fully digitalized invoice, check that document through the appropriate route. If it identifies a paper original, resolve the paper-document question. If the reply does not explain the file, retain the uncertainty instead of treating either a visible stamp or its absence as the final verdict.