What are the penalties for tax evasion?

Tax evasion is a serious violation and is an act of dishonesty, irresponsibility and unethical of any enterprise. Enterprises need to carefully consider that the following violations are regarded as tax evasion and will be penalized pursuant to Article 17, Decree 125/2020/ND-CP of the Government:

1. The fine which equals the amount of evaded tax shall be imposed on the taxpayer committing any of the following violations under at least a mitigating circumstance:

a) Failing to submit tax registration applications; failing to file tax returns or filing tax returns 90 days after the deadline or the extended deadline for submission of tax returns, except the cases prescribed in point b and c of clause 4 and 5 of Article 13 herein;

b) Failing to keep accounting entries of amounts collected from the determination of taxes payable, any deficiency in taxes amounts due to non-declaration or false declaration or any increase in amounts of tax refund, exemption or reduction, except the acts prescribed in Article 16 herein;

c) Failing to issue invoices for sale of goods or provision of services, except the cases where the taxpayer has recorded taxes on sold goods or supplied services in the corresponding tax term; issuing invoices for sale of goods or provision of services in which the invoiced items and amounts based on which tax declaration is made are less than those that actually exist if this act is discovered after the deadline for submission of tax returns;

d) Using illegal invoices; illegally using invoices for declaring taxes with the intention of reducing taxes payable or increasing amounts of tax refund, exemption or reduction;

dd) Using illegal evidencing documents; illegally using evidencing documents; using evidencing documents or records that do not correctly reflect the nature of transactions or actual values of these transactions for the purpose of falsely determining taxes payable, amounts of tax exemption, reduction or refund; preparing documents or records on destruction of supplies or goods which are not real, resulting in any reduction in taxes payable or any increase in amounts of tax refund, exemption or reduction;

e) Using goods not subject to taxes, or those qualified for tax exemption or consideration of tax exemption, to frustrate the prescribed purposes without informing tax authorities about the conversion of these purposes or registering tax declarations with tax authorities;

g) The violating taxpayer performs business activities during the period of business closure or temporary suspension without informing tax authorities, except the cases prescribed in point b of clause 4 of Article 10 herein.

2. The fine which is 1.5 times as much as the amount of evaded tax shall be imposed on any taxpayer committing one of the violations prescribed in clause 1 of this Article under neither aggravating nor mitigating circumstances.

3. The fine which is 2 times as much as the amount of evaded tax shall be imposed on any taxpayer committing one of the violations prescribed in clause 1 of this Article under an aggravating circumstance.

4. The fine which is 2.5 times as much as the amount of evaded tax shall be imposed on any taxpayer committing one of the violations prescribed in clause 1 of this Article under two aggravating circumstances.

5. The fine which is 3 times as much as the amount of evaded tax shall be imposed on any taxpayer committing one of the violations prescribed in clause 1 of this Article under at least three aggravating circumstances.

6. Remedies:

a) Compelling the full payment of evaded taxes into the state budget with respect to the acts prescribed in clause 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this Article.
If the sanctioning time limits for the acts of tax evasion prescribed in clause 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this Article expire, taxpayers that are not sanctioned must fully pay the amounts of evaded tax, deferred tax calculated based on the amounts of evaded tax into the state budget according to the time limits prescribed in clause 6 of Article 8 herein.

b) Compelling the re-adjustment of losses, the amounts of input VAT deductions specified in tax dossiers (if any) in case of commission of the acts prescribed in clause 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this Article.

7. If any of the acts prescribed in point b, dd and e of clause 1 of this Article is discovered after expiration of the time limit for submission of tax returns, which causes neither any reduction in taxes payable or tax refunds, nor any increase in amounts of tax exemption or reduction, such act shall be subject to administrative penalties stipulated in clause 3 of Article 12 herein.

As an established company in the field of tax and legal consulting, Vinasc hopes to adequately inform our customers to help them mitigate the risk during operation in Vietnam. Should there be any further concern, please contact Vinasc’s Customer Care department for timely support.