Enterprises are obliged to declare VAT fully and on time, and are responsible for the declared data.

Legal grounds:

• Law on Tax Administration 2019;
• Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP;
• Decree No. 125/2020/ND-CP;

Official Dispatch No. 192/TCT-PC dated January 18, 2023 of the General Department of Taxation.

The VAT declaration is a document showing the VAT obligations of the enterprise during the period and is declared by the enterprise periodically on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Because there are some goods and services that have a VAT rate of 0%, or are not subject to tax, or businesses purchasing goods from individuals and households apply the direct tax payment method. So some businesses forget and do not declare the value of purchased goods and services on the indicator [23] – “Value of purchased goods and services”. So is this mistake subject to administrative sanctions or not?

Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 42 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019 as follows:

Article 42. Principles of tax declaration and tax calculation

1. Taxpayers must declare accurately, truthfully, and completely the contents of the tax declaration according to the form prescribed by the Minister of Finance and submit all documents and vouchers specified in the tax declaration dossier to the management agency. tax management.

Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 7 of Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP as follows:

Article 7. Tax declaration documents

1. Tax declaration dossier is the tax declaration and related documents and vouchers as a basis for determining the taxpayer’s tax liability to the state budget, prepared by the taxpayer and sent to the tax administration agency by means of tax declaration. electronic or paper format. Taxpayers must declare tax declarations, lists, and appendices (if any) according to the form prescribed by the Minister of Finance and are responsible for the accuracy, truthfulness, and completeness of the contents in the declaration, lists, appendices; Submit all documents and vouchers specified in the tax declaration dossier to the tax administration agency. For some types of documents in the tax declaration dossier for which the Ministry of Finance does not issue a form but the relevant law stipulates a form, the provisions of the relevant law shall be followed.

According to the above regulations, businesses must accurately declare data on tax declarations. However, currently Decree No. 125/2020/ND-CP does not have regulations on penalties for incorrect declaration of the indicator [23] on VAT declarations.

Therefore, according to current regulations, businesses are not penalized for incorrectly declaring the value of purchased goods and services on VAT declarations.

In addition, Official Dispatch No. 192/TCT-PC dated January 18, 2023 of the General Department of Taxation also has the following instructions:

In principle, taxpayers are responsible for the accuracy, truthfulness, and completeness of the contents of their tax declaration. However, currently the law on tax administration does not have detailed regulations on the data on the value of purchased goods and services that must be declared at item 23 on the VAT declaration form No. 01/GTGT. Therefore, in case the taxpayer does not declare the value of sales invoices in the indicator “Value of purchased goods and services” (Indicator 23) on the VAT declaration form No. 01/GTGT, it is not an act of Administrative violations are specified in Article 12 of Decree No. 125/2020/ND-CP dated October 19, 2020 of the Government, so they are not subject to administrative tax penalties.

Note: declaring errors in the indicator [23] for the above purchased goods and services may not change the amount of VAT deducted or the amount of VAT payable in the period shown on the declaration. However, the tax declaration will not show the correct accounting data. Therefore, businesses should declare complete and accurate data to avoid tax risks.