No increase in penalties for incorrect tax filings.

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly disagreed with the proposal by some National Assembly deputies to increase the penalties for tax evasion, opting instead to maintain the penalties as stipulated in the draft Law on Tax Administration. This was raised by members of the Standing Committee during a discussion on the morning of August 15th, following a summary report of recommendations from the Finance and Budget Committee at its 3rd session regarding the Law on Tax Administration.

According to a report by the Finance and Budget Committee, some National Assembly deputies proposed increasing the penalties for incorrect tax declarations leading to a shortfall in tax payable or an increase in the amount of tax refunded (possibly 2-3 times higher than stipulated in the draft law); raising the penalty for incorrect declarations to 50%; and setting the general penalty for incorrect declarations at 10%.

However, the Standing Committee of the Finance and Budget Committee and many members of the National Assembly Standing Committee believe that increasing penalties must still ensure reasonableness, feasibility, and suitability to the taxpayer's ability to pay. If the penalty level is too high, exceeding the taxpayer's capacity, it could lead to negative behaviors such as collusion between tax officials and taxpayers or taxpayers absconding to evade their obligations, resulting in increased tax arrears and budget revenue losses.

Therefore, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly unanimously agreed to maintain the penalty levels as stipulated in the draft law.

Specifically, if a taxpayer makes an incorrect declaration, they must pay the full amount of the underdeclared tax, repay the refunded tax amount, and be subject to a penalty of 20% of the underdeclared tax amount, the excess refunded tax amount, and late payment interest calculated on the underdeclared tax amount or the excess refunded tax amount.

If an taxpayer incorrectly declares the tax on exported or imported goods, in addition to paying the full amount of tax and late payment penalties as prescribed, they will also be fined 20% of the underdeclared tax amount and the amount of tax refunded in cases where a supplementary declaration is made after the customs authority conducts a tax inspection or audit at the taxpayer's premises.

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly unanimously agreed that the authority to extend tax payment deadlines for individual corporations and enterprises will be decided by the Prime Minister.

National reserves are only for disaster relief.

Earlier that day, during discussions on the draft Law on National Reserves, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly proposed that national reserves should focus only on the objectives of preventing, combating, and mitigating unforeseen events and the consequences of natural disasters, fires, and epidemics.

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly also agreed with the amendments to the draft law regarding the following contents: Narrowing the list of national reserve goods, selecting only strategic and essential items serving national security, defense, and emergency situations (natural disasters, epidemics, fires). Regarding goods serving national defense and security, due to their unique nature, the Government will be responsible for specifying the details.

Regarding the direct procurement of national reserve goods, the bill stipulates that direct procurement should only be applied in cases involving national secrets, and in rare cases where open bidding or competitive tendering is not feasible.

According to (Chinhphu.vn) - LT