Vietnam: How much is the fine for offense against regulations on customs declaration resulting in understatement of tax payable?

According to Article 9 of the Decree No. 128/2020/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, fines for offenses against regulations on customs declaration resulting in understatement of tax payable or overstatement of tax eligible for refund, remission or cancellation are specified as follows:

1. The acts of making understatement of tax payable or overstatement of tax eligible for refund, remission or cancellation include:

- Incorrectly declaring the quantity, names, categories, quality, customs values, codes, tax rates, tax amount and origins of goods, except for the cases in Clause 8 Article 11 and Point b Clause 1 Article 14 of this Decree;

- Incorrectly declaring goods that are tax-free or exempt from tax or goods subject to tariff quotas;

- Providing incorrect information in the application for tax exemption/reduction/refund/cancellation or application for refund of overpaid tax/fine;

- Violating regulations on management of materials, supplies, machinery and equipment, processed products or domestic exports, thereby resulting in discrepancy between actual stock and values in accounting documents, accounting books or customs dossier on exports/imports other than the cases specified in Points d, dd, e and g Clause 1 Article 14 of this Decree;

- Violating against regulations on management of goods in a tax-suspension warehouse, thereby resulting in discrepancy between actual stock and values in accounting documents, accounting books or custom dossier on exports/imports other than the case specified in Point g Clause 1 Article 14 of this Decree;

- Preparing the statement in which the quantity of imported materials, supplies and parts used for production does not match the actual one.

- Declaring imported goods as processed abroad or domestic exports without a processor or manufacturer within the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; or without having machinery or equipment under the ownership or within the right of use at the manufacturing facility suitable for materials, supplies and parts imported for the purpose of processing and production of goods for export.

2. A fine of 10% of the understated amount of tax payable or the overstated amount of tax exempted, reduced, refunded or canceled shall be imposed in the case specified in Clause 1 of this Article if the taxpayer realizes the mistake and adjusts the tax declaration dossier in accordance with regulations of law on customs in one of the following cases:

- After the customs authority notifies the examination of the customs dossier on the goods following customs procedures;

- 60 days after the date of customs clearance and before the decision on post-clearance inspection or inspection of the goods granted customs clearance is issued;

- After the deadline for adding the statement but before the customs authority issues a decision on statement examination.

3. A fine of 20% of the understated amount of tax payable or the overstated amount of tax exempted, reduced, refunded or canceled shall be imposed in one of the following cases:

- The offense in Clause 1 of this Article is discovered by the customs authority during the course of following customs procedures;

- The offense in Clause 1 of this Article is discovered during the inspection of goods granted customs clearance;

- Failure to declare additional information about the customs value as prescribed is discovered during the inspection in the cases where the official prices of the goods are not available or goods for which the payment or goods for which payments and added amounts to the customs value are unknown when the customs declaration is registered;

- The offense in Clause 1 of this Article is discovered by the customs declarant himself/herself and he/she has adjusted the tax declaration dossier after the inspection conclusion is given.

Note: In some specific cases, if an organization or individual fails to voluntarily take a remedial measure by fully paying the tax payable before the record on administrative offense is made, the penalty prescribed in Point c Clause 1 Article 14 hereof shall be imposed.

View more details at the Decree No. 128/2020/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, effective from December 10, 2020.

Le Vy

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