How to be qualified for exemption from fines for tax or invoice-related administrative violations?
Pursuant to Article 43, Decree 125/2020/ND-CP on exemption from fines for tax or invoice-related administrative violations:
1. Any taxpayer subject to penalties for tax or invoice-related violations that suffers material loss in case of force majeure events prescribed in clause 27 of Article 3 in the Law on Tax Administration shall be exempt from fines.
2. After getting away the deduction of the insured value or indemnity value (if any), the maximum amount of exemption shall be equal to the remaining amount of fine determined in the fine charge decision and does not exceed the value of damaged goods or services.
3. Documents submitted to apply for the exemption from fines for tax or invoice-related administrative violations, including:
a) Application form for the exemption from the fine, clearly stating reasons for such application; determining the value of the damaged property or goods; the amount of fine or interest on late payment of the fine (if any) in question;
b) Written request for fine exemption from the competent person or his/her host entity issuing the penalty charge decision, clearly stating reasons for application for the fine exemption; the amount of fine or the amount of interest on late payment of the fine (if any) in question;
c) Written document stating that the taxpayer is affected by any natural disaster, calamity, disease, fire or sudden accident or other force majeure events under the Government’s regulations, time and location of occurrence of the force majeure event under discussion, from one of the following entities or authorities: Police of communes, wards and townships; People’s Committees of communes, wards and towns; Management boards of industrial parks, export processing zones and economic zones where the force majeure event took place; rescue or emergency response services; entities having competence in declaring the disease (an original copy or notarized or authenticated copy);
d) The written inventory determining the damaged value issued by the taxpayer or the taxpayer’s legal representative;
dd) The written document or record stating the damaged value which is issued by the competent appraising body in accordance with regulations of laws (an original copy, notarized or certified copy), unless otherwise stated in point g of this clause;
e) The penalty charge decision or the notice of the tax authority regarding the outstanding amount of fine determined at the time of occurrence of the force majeure event under discussion and at the time of submission of the application for fine exemption;
g) The set of documents and records stating the indemnity against the material loss accepted by the insurance agency as required by laws (original copies or notarized or certified copies) (if any);
h) The set of documents and records stating compensation liabilities that must be accepted by the insurance agency as required by laws (original copies or notarized or certified copies) (if any);
4. Authority to grant the fine exemption
a) Heads of Taxation Sub-departments shall, within their remit, have authority to grant fine exemptions for administrative penalty charge decisions issued by Leaders of Tax Teams;
b) Directors of Taxation Departments shall, within their remit, have authority to grant fine exemptions for administrative penalty charge decisions issued by Heads of Taxation Sub-departments or Leaders of Inspectorates of Taxation Departments;
c) Directors of General Department of Taxation shall have authority to grant fine exemptions for administrative penalty charge decisions issued by Directors of Taxation Departments or Leaders of Inspectorate of General Department of Taxation;
d) Minister of Finance shall have authority to grant fine exemptions for administrative penalty charge decisions issued by Directors of General Department of Taxation or Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Finance;
dd) Directors of Departments of Finance shall have authority to grant fine exemptions for administrative penalty charge decisions issued by Chief Inspectors of Departments of Finance;
e) Chief Inspector of Ministry of Finance shall have authority to grant fine exemptions for administrative penalty charge decisions issued by Leader of the Inspectorate of Ministry of Finance;
g) Presidents of provincial-level People’s Committees shall have the authority to grant fine exemptions for administrative penalty charge decisions issued by Presidents of district-level People’s Committees and by themselves.
5. Application and documentation requirements for fine exemption
Taxpayers prescribed in clause 1 of this Article must file applications for exemption from the remaining amounts of fines owed or the entire fines, enclosing documents and records, to persons/entities issuing penalty charge decisions.
Within the duration of 03 working days of receipt of the submitted application for fine exemption, the person issuing the administrative penalty charge decision must transfer the application, enclosing documents and records on the case to the person having authority to issue the decision on fine exemption, and inform the applicant of this.
Within the duration of 30 working days of receipt of the submitted application and documents for fine exemption, the person having authority to grant fine exemption must issue the decision on fine exemption or the notice of refusal of grant of fine exemption to the applicant, the person issuing the penalty charge decision. In case where the person having authority to grant fine exemption does not disapprove of the fine exemption, clear reasons for such disapproval must be stated.
6. Exemption from fines for tax or invoice-related administrative violations shall not be applied to the cases in which penalty charge decisions have been completely executed.
7. If the fine exemption is granted, the exemption from the amount of interest on late payment of the fine shall be applied as well.
8. If any taxpayer has already been exempted from the fine, and the competent authority or tax authority finds that such fine exemption is in breach of regulations laid down in this Article, the person having authority to grant fine exemption may issue the decision to revoke or adjust the fine exemption decision. The tax authority directly supervising the taxpayer shall be responsible for recouping the amount of fine exemption in breach of regulations and charging the amount of interest on the late payment of such amount into the state budget as provided in Article 42 herein. The date on which the amount of interest on the late payment of the amount of fine exemption in breach of regulations shall be the date on which the sanctioned entity or person submits all required documents to apply for fine exemption.
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