Do I have to pay interest for late payment of fines?
Many people wonder if they will have to pay interest if they receive a late fine?
Traffic police said that regarding interest on late payment of administrative fines (including late fines) as stipulated in Clause 1, Article 5 of Circular 18/2023, if individuals and organizations have not paid the fines within the time limit for enforcing administrative fines, they will be forced to enforce the fines and for each day of late payment, the violating individuals and organizations must pay an additional 0.05% of the total unpaid fines.
The number of days of late payment of fines includes holidays and days off according to regulations and is calculated from the day following the last day of the fine payment deadline to the day before the individual or organization committing administrative violations pays the fine to the State budget.
Thus, after 10 days from the date of receiving the decision on administrative penalty, if the individual or organization has not paid the fine, the penalty decision will be enforced and for each day of late payment, the violating individual or organization must pay an additional 0.05% of the total unpaid fine.
Regarding the method of determining the time to calculate the late payment fine, Circular 18/2023 clearly states that in case the penalty decision is delivered directly, the date to calculate the late payment fine is after 10 days or after the implementation period stated in the administrative penalty decision from the date of receipt of the penalty decision.
In case the penalty decision is sent by post (cold fine) in the form of guarantee, the date for calculating the late payment penalty is after 10 days (including holidays and days off) or after the execution period stated in the administrative penalty decision from the date the penalty decision is validly issued according to regulations.
In case the sanctioned individual or organization does not have confirmation of the date of receipt of the sanction decision, cannot present the date the sanction decision was validly issued, but is not in the case of intentionally not receiving the sanction decision, the date for calculating the late payment fee for the enforcement of the sanction decision is calculated from the date of issuance of the sanction decision, which is 12 days after.
In cases of intentional refusal to receive the penalty decision, the agency of the person with authority to issue the penalty decision and the agency with enforcement authority shall notify the State Treasury where the fine is collected about the time considered to be the delivery of the penalty decision so that the State Treasury can calculate the late payment penalty.
In case an individual or organization being penalized intentionally fails to pay the late fine, the competent authority shall collect the administrative fine on the penalty decision; at the same time, the late fine shall still be calculated and clearly stated on the fine collection and payment voucher...
However, Circular 18/2023/TT-BTC also adds cases where late payment of administrative violation fines is not calculated.
Article 5, Clause 2 of this Circular stipulates that late payment of administrative fines shall not be charged in the following cases: during the period of suspension of execution of the decision on administrative fines; during the period of consideration and decision to reduce or exempt the remaining amount or allow multiple payment of fines.
