Thông tư 176/2016/TT-BTC

CIRCULAR

AMENDING AND SUPPLEMENTING A NUMBER OF ARTICLES OF CIRCULAR No. 10/2014/TT-BTC DATED JANUARY 17, 2014 BY THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE PROVIDING GUIDANCE ON PENALTIES FOR ADMINISTRATIVE VIOLATIONS AGAINST REGULATIONS ON INVOICES

Pursuant to the Law on Actions against administrative violations No. 15/2012/QH13 dated June 20, 2012;

Pursuant to the Law on Tax administration No. 78/2006/QH11 dated November 29, 2006 and the Law on amendments to a number of articles of the Law on Tax administration No. 21/2012/QH13 dated November 20, 2012;

Pursuant to the Decree No. 81/2013/NDD-CP dated July 19, 2013 by the Government detailing a number of articles and measures for implementing the Law on Actions against administrative violations;

Pursuant to the Decree No. 51/2010/NDD-CP dated May 14, 2010 by the Government providing for goods or service provision invoices; the Decree No. 04/2014/NDD-CP dated January 17, 2014 by the Government amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Decree No. 51/2010/NDD-CP dated May 2010 by the Government providing for goods or service provision invoices;

Pursuant to the Decree No. 109/2013/NDD-CP dated September 24, 2013 by the Government on penalties for administrative violations against regulations on management of charges, fees and invoices; the Decree No. 49/2016/NDD-CP dated May 27, 2016 by the Government amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Decree No. 109/2013/NDD-CP dated September 24, 2013 by the Government on penalties for administrative violations against regulations on management of charges, fees and invoices;

Pursuant to Decree No. 215/2013/NDD-CP dated December 23, 2013 by the Government defining the functions, tasks, entitlements and organizational structure of the Ministry of Finance;

At the request of the Director of the General Department of Taxation,

The Minister of Finance hereby provides guidance on amendment and supplement to a number of articles of the Circular No. 10/2014/TT-BTC dated January 17, 2014 by the Ministry of Finance on penalties for administrative violations against regulations on invoices as follows:

Article 1. Amendments and supplements to a number of articles of Circular No. 10/2014/TT-BTC dated January 17, 2014 by the Ministry of Finance providing guidance on penalties for administrative violations against regulations on invoices:

1. Amendments and supplements to clause 1 and clause 6 and amendment of clause 2a to Article 7:

 “1. Ordering of invoice printing without signing written contracts.

a) A fine of from VND 500,000 to VND 1,500,000 shall be imposed on both the customers and the printers of invoices for the ordering of invoice printing without signing written contracts or any invoice-printing organization that prints invoices itself without an invoice-printing decision issued by its Head as prescribed in regulations.

The invoice-printing contract shall be presented in writing in accordance with provisions of the Civil Code, the decision on printing an invoice itself by any printing organization shall be presented in printing and shall contain sufficiently the contents specified in the Circulars of the Ministry of Finance regarding goods or service provision invoices.

b) If the invoice order has been concluded in a contract but the printing contract does not contain sufficiently the required contents or the invoice-printing organization has signed a decision on self-printing of invoices but such decision does not contain sufficiently the contents specified in the Circulars of the Ministry of Finance regarding goods and service provision invoices, then:

b.1) A warning shall be imposed in the case that the customer and the printer of invoices have signed the annexes of the contract to supplement the contents or the invoice-printing organization which printed the ordered invoices itself has signed a decision to supplement the contents before the tax agency declares the inspection decision.

b.2) A fine of at least VND 500,000 shall be imposed in the case where the invoice-printing customer and printer fails to sign the annexes of the contract to supplement the contents or the invoice-printing organization fails to sign a decision to supplement the contents. Concurrently, the invoice-printing customer shall supplement the contents of the contract.”

“2a. A fine of from VND 2,000,000 to VND 4,000,000 shall be imposed on  the ordering of invoices when the tax agency has notified in writing that the organization/enterprise is not eligible to order the invoice printing, unless the tax agency did not express its opinions in writing after receiving the application for use of the printed invoices by organization/enterprise in accordance with instructions of the Ministry of Finance.”

“6. Remedial measures: organizations and individuals committing violations against provisions of clause 2a, clause 4 and clause 5 of this Article shall destroy the invoices which are printed by order unconformably to law.”

2. Clause 1a is added to Article 10 as follows:

“1a. A fine of from VND 500,000 to VND 1,500,000 shall be imposed on any of the following acts:

a) Submitting notification of modification of contents of the notice of invoice issuance to supervisory tax authority or submitting the list of unused invoices to the tax agency of the place where the enterprise moves to (applicable to cases where the enterprise’s office moves to another place causing the change of supervisory tax authority) form the 11^th date after the date of use of the invoices at the new address.

b) Using invoices whose issuance have been notified the tax agency but effective date has not come (05 days from the date of notification of issuance).”

3. Point c is added to clause 1 Article 10 as follows:

“1. A fine of from VND 2,000,000 to VND 4,000,000 shall be imposed on any of the following acts:

a) Making issuance notice with insufficient contents according to regulations, discovered by the tax agencies and noticed in writing to organizations and/or individuals for amendments and issuing invoices to customers when the supplements to the contents have not been added.

In case of having a mitigating circumstance, a minimum fine of VND 2,000,000 shall be imposed.

b) Failing to post up the notice of invoice issuance according to regulations.

The posting of invoice-issuing notice shall comply with the guidance in the Circular of the Ministry of Finance regarding goods and service provision invoices.

In case of having a mitigating circumstance, a minimum fine of VND 2,000,000 shall be imposed.

c) Submitting notification of modification of contents of the notice of invoice issuance to supervisory tax authority or submitting the list of unused invoices to the tax agency of the place where the enterprise moves to (applicable to cases where the enterprise’s office moves to another place causing the change of supervisory tax authority) from the 21^st date after the date of use of the invoices at the new address.”

4. Point g is added to clause 3 Article 11 as follows:

“g) Causing the loss, fire or damage of issued invoices which have not been used or have been used (the customer's sheet) but have not been received by the customer yet when the time of reserve has not come or the invoices were used according to the retail list of the goods and/or service; except for cases of loss, fire or damage of invoices due to natural disasters, conflagrations or surprising or force majeure events where the pecuniary penalties shall not be imposed.

For case of loss, fire or damage of a used invoice (the customer’s sheet), the buyer and the seller shall file a record of the case. If the seller has declared and paid taxes and has contracts and documents to prove the sale of goods/service and eligible for a mitigating circumstances, then the seller shall be subject to the minimum fine of the fine bracket; if such seller is eligible for two mitigating circumstances or more, then he/she shall be subject to a warning.

The loss, fire or damage of invoices, excluding the customer’s sheet, during the retention period shall be handled according to law on accounting.

If the seller found the lost invoice (the customer’s sheet) and the tax agency has not issued a decision on penalty, then the seller shall not be imposed a pecuniary penalty.

If the seller caused the lost, fire or damage of sheets of an invoice which was used improperly and has been annulled (the seller has used another invoice to replace the invoice with was used improperly and annulled), then the seller shall be imposed a warning.

If in the same time the organization/individual notified its loss of many invoices to the tax agency but the tax agency has sufficient proof that such organization/individual combined multiple times of losing invoices to report to the tax agency, then fines shall be imposed on each time of loss of the invoice.

For case of loss, fire or damage of the used invoice (the customer’s sheet) that is related to a third party or a third party hired by the seller, then the seller shall be imposed penalties according to regulations in this point."

5. Point a Clause 4 Article 11 is annulled and clause 4 Article 11 is amended as follows:

“4. A fine of from VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 shall be imposed on the failure to give an invoice for selling goods/service which has a value of VND 200,000 or more to the buyer according to regulations. In conjunction with being sanctioned, business organizations and/or individuals shall give the invoice to the buyer.”

6. Clause 1 Article 12 is amended as follows:

“1. A fine of from VND 4,000,000 to VND 8,000,000 shall be imposed on the causing of the loss, fire or damage of the used an invoiced (the customer’s sheet) for accounting, declaring tax and repaying the budget capital; except for cases of loss, fire or damage of the invoice due to natural disasters, conflagrations or surprising or force majeure events where the pecuniary penalties shall not be imposed.

For case of loss, fire or damage of a used invoice (the customer’s sheet), the buyer and the seller shall file a record of the case. If the seller has declared and paid taxes and has contracts and documents to prove the sale of goods/service and eligible for a mitigating circumstances, then the seller shall be subject to the minimum fine of the fine bracket; if such seller is eligible for two mitigating circumstances or more, then he/she shall be subject to a warning.

If the buyer found the lost invoice and reports the event to the tax agency before it issues the decision on penalty, then the buyer shall not be subject to a pecuniary penalty.

If in the same time the organization/individual notified its loss of many invoices to the tax agency but the tax agency has sufficient proof that such organization/individual combined multiple times of losing invoices to report to the tax agency, then fines shall be imposed on each time of loss of the invoice.

For case of loss, fire or damage of the used invoice (the customer’s sheet) that is related to a third party or a third party hired by the buyer, then the buyer shall be imposed penalties according to regulations in this clause."

The loss, fire or damage of the used invoices (the customer’s sheet) during the retention period shall be handled according to law on accounting.”

7. Clause 1 and clause 2 are amended and clause 4 is added to Article 13 as follows:

“1. A fine of from VND 200,000 to VND 1,000,000 shall be imposed on the formulating and sending notices/reports with unconformable contents to tax agencies, except for notices of invoice issuance.

If the organization/individual found the fault by itself and sends a conformable replacing notice/report to the tax agency before the issuance of a Tax inspection decision by a tax agency or a competent authority, then such organization/individual shall not be imposed the pecuniary penalty.

2. For violations against regulations on submission of notices/reports to tax agencies, excluding notices of invoice issuance:

a) A warning shall be imposed on the submission of notices/reports to tax agencies in the 1^st date to the 10^th date as from the deadline prescribed, not applicable to notices of invoice issuance.

b) A fine of from VND 2,000,000 to VND 4,000,000 shall be imposed on the submission of notices/reports to tax agencies after the 10^th date from the deadline prescribed, not applicable to notices of invoice issuance.

3. A fine of from VND 4,000,000 to VND 8,000,000 shall be imposed on the failure to submit notices/reports to tax agencies. The failure to submit notices/reports to tax agencies shall be defined for the submission after the 20th date from the deadline prescribed, not applicable to notices of invoice issuance.

4. Remedial measures: Any organization/individual committing violations against regulations in clause 1 of this Article shall formulate and resend notices and reports according to regulations.”

Article 2. Effect

1. This Decree comes into force from December 15, 2016.

2. Other provisions pertaining to penalties for administrative violations against regulations on invoices guided in this Circular shall be conformable to the Law on Actions against administrative violations and the Circular No. 10/2014/TT-BTC dated January 17, 2014 by the Ministry of Finance and relevant documents.

Article 3. Implementation

1. Tax agencies of all levels shall disseminate and guide business and non-business organizations and individuals and customers shall comply with the guidance in this Circular and conduct inspection and handle violations of organizations and individuals using the invoices to ensure the consistency of the domain and conformity to law.

2. Organizations and individuals performing activities related to the printing, issuance and use of invoices shall comply with the guidance in this Circular.

Difficulties that arise during the implementation of this Circular should be reported to the Ministry of Finance for solution./.