This is an issue that many people are currently concerned about and have numerous queries regarding. In which cases are businesses allowed to file an additional customs declaration, and in which cases will they not be penalized for violations when filing an additional customs declaration? Secretary of Law will provide specific answers in the article below.
Article table of contents
Customs Procedures 2020: Cases of Customs Supplementary Declaration Not Subject to Penalties (Illustrative Image)
COMPLETE COLLECTION OF CUSTOMS LAW DOCUMENTS 2019
According to Article 20 of Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC, Clause 9 Article 1 of Circular 39/2018/TT-BTC, except for information indicators on customs declarations that are not allowed to be supplemented as specified in Section 3 of Appendix II issued with Circular 38, customs declarants can supplement information indicators on customs declarations in the following cases:
- Supplementary Declaration during Clearance:
+ Customs declarants and taxpayers can supplement customs documents before customs authorities notify the results of the customs declaration review to the customs declarant;
+ Customs declarants and taxpayers detect errors in customs declarations after customs authorities notify the results of the customs declaration review but before clearance can supplement customs documents and will be handled according to the law;
+ Customs declarants and taxpayers supplement customs documents at the request of customs authorities when customs authorities detect errors or inconsistencies between actual goods, customs documents, and declared information during document checks and actual goods inspections and will be handled according to the law.
- Supplementary Declaration after Goods Have Been Cleared:
Except for supplementary declarations related to export and import licenses; specialized inspections for goods quality, health, culture, animal quarantine, animal products, plant products, and food safety, customs declarants can supplement declarations after clearance in the following cases:
+ Customs declarants and taxpayers detect errors in customs declarations can supplement customs documents within 60 days from the date of clearance but before customs authorities decide on post-clearance inspection or audit;
+ Beyond 60 days from the date of clearance and before customs authorities decide on post-clearance inspection or audit, if customs declarants and taxpayers detect errors in customs declarations, they must supplement and will be handled according to the law.
According to the above regulations, enterprises that supplement customs documents before customs authorities notify the results of the customs declaration review or detect errors in customs declarations, proactively supplementing within 60 days from the clearance date and before customs authorities decide on post-clearance inspection will be exempt from penalties.
Additionally, for cases of supplementary declaration of customs documents subject to administrative violations penalties, they will be considered not to be penalized if they fall into one of the cases stipulated in Article 5 of Decree 127/2013/ND-CP, Clause 2 Article 1 of Decree 45/2016/ND-CP and Article 4 of Circular 155/2016/TT-BTC, including:
- Goods and means of transport brought into Vietnam's territory due to unexpected events, force majeure events must be notified to the Customs Branch or Control Team or Maritime Control Team or the Provincial/City Customs Department, the nearest local authority, or other competent authorities as prescribed by law within no more than 03 days from the date of bringing goods and means of transport into Vietnam's territory; these goods and means of transport must be taken out of Vietnam's territory after the above factors are remedied.
- Mistakes during the import process, sending goods to Vietnam, but the sender, receiver, or legal representative has notified in writing, clearly stating the reason to the Head of the Customs Branch where the goods are stored with relevant documents attached to the mistakes before registering the customs declaration; except for cases where the imported goods are narcotics, weapons, reactionary documents, toxic chemicals under Table I of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
In cases where it is determined that there is collusion between the sender, receiver, and/or transporter to evade taxes, illegally transport goods across borders, or smuggle, customs authorities have the right to refuse to accept mistakes and handle according to the law. The refusal by customs authorities to accept mistakes must be made in writing specifying the reasons.
- Cases eligible for supplementary customs documents within the legally stipulated time. These are cases of declaration amendments, supplementary customs documents as stipulated at Point a, Point b Clause 1 Article 20 of Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC.
- Organizations and individuals committing violations specified in Article 8, Article 13 of Decree 127/2013/ND-CP with a tax difference not exceeding VND 500,000 for individual violations or VND 2,000,000 for organizational violations.
- Export and import goods not in line with customs declarations in terms of quantity and weight as stipulated in Article 7 of Decree 127/2013/ND-CP, where the value of the goods not in line with the customs declaration does not exceed 10% of the actual export or import value, but not exceeding VND 10,000,000 in total.
- First-time customs declarants who accurately declare the names of actually exported or imported goods according to customs declaration regulations but incorrectly declare the goods code according to the Vietnam Export and Import Goods List; incorrectly declare the tax rate, tariff for those goods according to the Export Tariff, Import Tariff in effect at the time of registering the customs declaration.
- Violations of customs declaration regulations for foreign currency in cash, Vietnamese dong in cash, gold from individuals exiting or entering the country, when the violation material has a value under VND 5,000,000.
- Import violations of goods and items against customs declaration regulations, violations of Article 14 of Decree 127/2013/ND-CP, if postal and courier businesses, on behalf of the proprietors, process customs formalities according to the law, and there is no evidence of collusion between the sender, receiver, and customs formalities processor for fraud purposes, then no penalty will be applied.
Nguyen Trinh
