Vietnam: New regulations on prescriptive time limits for imposing penalties for administrative customs offenses

According to Article 4 of the Decree No. 128/2020/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, prescriptive time limits for imposing penalties for administrative customs offenses are specified as follows:

Prescriptive time limits for imposing penalties for offenses against tax administration:

- The prescriptive time limit for imposition of penalties for tax evasion that is not liable to criminal prosecution, understatement of tax payable or overstatement of tax eligible for refund, remission or cancellation is 05 years from the day on which the offense is committed;

- After the aforementioned prescriptive time limits expire, the taxpayer will not incur penalties but still has to fully pay the outstanding tax, the evaded tax, the incorrectly reduced, exempted or refunded tax plus (+) late payment interest that have accrued over the last 10 years before the day on which the offense is discovered.

The prescriptive time limits for imposing penalties for other customs offenses is similar to that in Article 6 of the Law on Handling Administrative Violations 2012 of Vietnam, except for the cases specified above.

The prescriptive time limits for imposing penalties for administrative offenses that are requested by proceeding agencies as specified in Article 63 of the Law on Handling Administrative Violations 2012 of Vietnam shall apply as follows:

- The statute of limitations for sanctioning is 5 years from the date of committing the violation;

- Comply with the provisions of Article 6 of the Law on Handling Administrative Violations 2012 of Vietnam.

Note: The period during which the case is examined by the proceeding agency is included in the prescriptive time limit for imposing penalties. If the offender deliberately avoids or obstructs the imposition of penalties during the time limits specified above, the prescriptive time limit for imposing penalties shall begin again when the avoidance or obstruction is stopped.

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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