Vietnam: When do taxpayers have to pay late payment interest applied to exports and imports?

LawNet would like to answer Mr. Huy’s question as follows:

According to Article 133 of Circular No. 38/2015/TT-BTC amended by Clause 66 Article 1 of Circular No. 39/2018/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam, late payment interest shall be charged in the following cases:

- Tax is paid behind the initial deadline, extended deadline, deadline written in the tax imposition decision or tax decision issued by a competent authority;

- Payment of tax arrears due to understatement of tax payable or overstatement of tax exemption, tax reduction or tax refund;

- Tax is paid by instalments;

- The exports or imports are granted customs clearance or conditional customs clearance under a guarantee as prescribed in Article 9 of the Law on Export and import duties and Article 4 of Decree No. 134/2016/ND-CP of Vietnam’s Government.

The guarantor shall pay late payment interest if the taxpayer fails to fully pay tax by the end of the guarantee period.

Late payment interest shall be determined as follows:

- Late payment interest = late payment interest rate multiplied by (x) late payment days x amount payable;

- The late payment interest rate is 0.03% per day on the amount payable;

- The late payment period begins from the day succeeding the deadline for paying tax and ends on the day succeeding the day on which tax is paid by the taxpayer, authorized tax collector or guarantor to state budget.

The taxpayer, authorized tax collector or guarantor shall determine the late payment interest specified above and pay it to the state budget.

If the customs authority discovers that the late payment interest is underpaid, the customs authority shall request the taxpayer, the authorized tax collector or the guarantor to pay the arrears.

If the taxpayer, tax collector or guarantor fails to pay tax and late payment interest within 30 days from the deadline for paying tax, the customs authority shall notify the taxpayer, tax collector or guarantor of the amount of tax and late payment interest accrued by the date of notification (form No. 57 and form No. 58 in Appendix of Circular No. 155/2016/TT-BTC).

Nguyen Trinh

>> CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE IN VIETNAMESE