Vietnam: Amending penalties for violations against regulations on time limit for completing customs procedure

Decree No. 45/2016/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government amends regulation on violations against regulations on time limit for completing customs procedure and submitting tax statement by amending the fine levels and supplementing related violations. To be specific:

Annulling the fine of warning, only stipulating a fine of from VND 500,000 to VND 1,000,000 shall be imposed for violations on failure to complete, submit, produce the customs dossier or provide information about the customs dossier on schedule, additional customs declaration. Concurrently, supplementing 02 violations: declaring official prices behind schedules in case official prices were not available when the customs declaration was registered; and failure to punctually re-export the vehicle that crosses the border checkpoint to deliver goods.

According to Decree No. 127/2013/NĐ-CP, violations related to tax records in customs shall be imposed a fine of from VND 1,000,000 to VND 5,000,000. However, Decree No. 45/2016/NĐ-CP has amended fine levels and specified violations corresponding to each level of fine as follows:

A fine of from VND 1,000,000 VND to VND 2,000,000 shall be imposed for failure to perform any of the following tasks on schedule:

a) Provide the audit report or financial statement; notification of penalties for tax offenses of accounting offenses of enterprises eligible for priority;

b) Submit a report on quantity of goods imported serving factory construction and goods stored externally of an export processing enterprise;

c) Submit a report on quantity of goods entering, leaving, and stored in the transshipment port;

d) Submit a report on operation of the customs brokerage agent;

dd) Submit a statistical report on customs clearance of international postal packages transited through Vietnam.

A fine of from VND 2,000,000 to VND 5,000,000 shall be imposed for any of the following violations:

a) Submitting a customs declaration before goods for export are gathered at the location notified to the customs authority;

b) Failure to make declaration and follow procedures on schedule when goods for export are sold domestically; repurposing goods eligible for tax exemption, tax refund, or tax cancellation;

c) Failure to punctually submit the application for tax cancellation, financial statement, or report on use of tax-free goods;

d) Failure to adhere to regulations on handling excess materials and supplies, scrap, machinery or equipment that are rented or borrowed when the processing contract expires;

dd) Failure to punctually send a notification of the processor or manufacturer of goods for export; storage location of raw materials, machinery and equipment, products for export;

e) Failure to punctually send a notification when hiring a processor;

g) Failure to re-export or re-import on schedule or within the time limit registered with the customs authority, except for the violations specified in Point a Clause 4 of this Article;

h) Violating other regulations on deadline for making tax statement.

According to Decree No. 45/2016/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, a fine of from VND 5,000,000 to VND 10,000,000 shall be imposed for any of the following violations:

- Failure to punctually re-export the temporarily imported goods eligible for tax exemption or goods temporarily imported for re-export;

- Failure to punctually re-export the vehicle, except for vehicles for the transport of fewer than 24 people specified in Clause 5 of this Article and vehicles crossing the border checkpoint area to deliver goods;

- Storing goods in transit in Vietnam past the deadline.

In comparison with previous regulation, the new Decree has stipulated more specifically that it does not apply to means of transport which are passenger cars with under 24 seats and means of transport of individuals and organizations passing through the border gate area to deliver and receive goods. According to Decree No. 45/2016/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, penalties for failure to punctually re-export vehicles for the transport of fewer than 24 people are as follows:

- A fine of from VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 shall be imposed if the vehicle is re-exported less than 30 days behind schedule;

- A fine of from VND 20,000,000 to VND 50,000,000 shall be imposed if the vehicle is re-exported 30 days or more behind schedule;

In addition to fines, the violating entities shall also be subject to remedial measures: re-export the temporarily imported goods or vehicles or remove the goods from Vietnam.

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