Is tax evasion criminally prosecuted?

Reply:

According to Article 200 of the 2025 Penal Code, Point a, Point b, Clause 47, Article 1 of the Law amending the 2017 Penal Code, the crime of tax evasion is defined as follows:

- A person who commits one of the acts of tax evasion with an amount from VND 100,000,000 to under VND 300,000,000 or under VND 100,000,000 but has been administratively sanctioned for tax evasion or has been convicted of this crime or of one of the crimes specified in Articles 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 202, 250, 251, 253, 254, 304, 305, 306, 309 and 311 of this Code, whose criminal record has not been cleared and who continues to commit the violation, shall be fined from VND 100,000,000 to VND 500,000,000 or imprisoned from 03 months to 05 years. 01 year:

+ Failure to submit tax registration documents; failure to submit tax declaration documents; submission of tax declaration documents after 90 days from the deadline for submitting tax declaration documents or the deadline for submitting tax declaration documents as prescribed by law;

+ Not recording in the accounting books the revenues related to determining the amount of tax payable;

+ Not issuing invoices when selling goods or services or recording a value on the sales invoice lower than the actual payment value of the goods or services sold;

+ Using illegal invoices and documents to account for goods and input materials in activities that generate tax obligations, reducing the amount of tax payable or increasing the amount of tax exempted, the amount of tax reduced, or increasing the amount of tax deducted, the amount of tax refunded;

+ Using other illegal documents and vouchers to incorrectly determine the amount of tax payable or the amount of tax refunded;

+ Falsely declaring exported or imported goods without submitting additional tax declaration documents after the goods have been cleared through customs, if not falling under the cases specified in Articles 188 and 189 of this Code;

+ Intentionally failing to declare or making false declarations about taxes on exported and imported goods, if not falling under the cases specified in Articles 188 and 189 of this Code;

+ Colluding with the shipper to import goods, if not falling under the cases specified in Article 188 and Article 189 of this Code;

+ Using goods that are not subject to tax, are exempt from tax, or are considered for tax exemption for purposes other than those prescribed without declaring the change of purpose of use to the tax authority.

- Committing a crime in one of the following cases shall be subject to a fine of from VND 500,000,000 to VND 1,500,000,000 or imprisonment from 01 year to 03 years:

+ Organized;

+ Tax evasion amount from 300,000,000 VND to less than 1,000,000,000 VND;

+ Abuse of position and power;

+ Committing the crime 2 times or more;

+ Dangerous recidivism.

- Committing tax evasion with an amount of VND 1,000,000,000 or more, shall be subject to a fine from VND 1,500,000,000 to VND 4,500,000,000 or imprisonment from 02 years to 07 years:

- The offender may also be fined from VND 20,000,000 to VND 100,000,000, banned from holding positions, practicing a profession or doing certain jobs from 01 to 05 years or have part or all of his/her property confiscated.

- Commercial legal entities committing crimes specified in this Article shall be punished as follows:

+ Committing one of the acts specified in Clause 1 of this Article to evade tax with an amount from VND 200,000,000 to under VND 300,000,000 or from VND 100,000,000 to under VND 200,000,000 but having been administratively sanctioned for tax evasion or having been convicted of this crime or one of the crimes specified in Articles 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195 and 196 of this Code, not yet having had the criminal record cleared but still committing the violation, shall be subject to a fine from VND 300,000,000 to VND 1,000,000,000;

+ Committing a crime in one of the cases specified in Points a, b, d and dd, Clause 2 of this Article shall be subject to a fine of from VND 1,000,000,000 to VND 3,000,000,000;

+ Committing a crime under the provisions of Clause 3 of this Article shall be subject to a fine of from VND 3,000,000,000 to VND 10,000,000,000 or suspension of operations for a period of from 06 months to 03 years;

+ Committing a crime under the provisions of Article 79 of this Code shall result in permanent suspension of operations;

+ Commercial legal entities may also be fined from VND 50,000,000 to VND 200,000,000, banned from doing business, banned from operating in certain fields or banned from raising capital from 01 year to 03 years".

Thus, depending on the amount of tax evasion, whether or not criminal prosecution will be carried out immediately. There are cases where the amount of tax evasion is not yet serious enough to be prosecuted criminally, but if the case has been administratively sanctioned for tax evasion as prescribed above, criminal prosecution will still be carried out.