What Conduct Is Considered Tax Evasion Under the New Law?

This English version is translated from the Vietnamese original. In case of any discrepancy, the Vietnamese version prevails.

Which acts are considered tax evasion under the new Law?

Law on Tax Management 2025 (No. 108/2025/QH15), effective from 01/07/2026, continues to directly regulate tax evasion acts at the law level, while restructuring and adjusting the content of provisions compared to Article 143 of the Law on Tax Management 2019. Notably, the new law clarifies the relationship between violation acts, tax obligation consequences, and cases exempted from punishment for tax evasion.

What are the 10 tax evasion acts under Clause 4, Article 45 of the Law on Tax Management 2025?

Clause 4, Article 45 of the Law on Tax Management 2025 (No. 108/2025/QH15) lists the following acts in full:

a) Failure to submit tax registration documents; failure to submit tax declaration documents; submission of tax declaration documents more than 90 days after the deadline for submission of tax declaration documents or the extension deadline for submission of tax declaration documents as provided for by this Law resulting in insufficient amount of tax to be paid or an increase in the amount of tax exempted, reduced, or refunded.

(b) Failure to record or register in accounting books the amounts of revenue related to the determination of the amount of tax to be paid.

(c) Failure to issue invoices and failure to declare tax when selling goods or providing services as prescribed by law or recording the value on the sales invoice lower than the actual settlement value of the sold goods or services for tax declaration purposes.

(d) Use of unlawful invoices or documents, unlawful use of invoices or documents for accounting of purchased goods or services in activities creating tax obligations that reduce the amount of tax to be paid or increase the amount of tax exempted, the amount of tax reduced, or increase the amount of tax deducted, the amount of tax refunded, or the amount of tax not to be paid.

(đ) Use of documents and records that do not reflect the true nature of transactions or actual transaction values to incorrectly determine the amount of tax to be paid, the amount of tax exempted, the amount of tax reduced, the amount of tax refunded, or the amount of tax not to be paid.

(e) Declaring false information regarding exported or imported goods when an individual or organization violates this without voluntarily remedying consequences by paying the full amount of tax to be paid as prescribed.

(g) Intentional failure to declare or false declaration of tax for exported or imported goods.

(h) Collusion with the shipper to import goods for the purpose of tax evasion.

(i) Use of goods not subject to tax, tax-exempted, or selectively tax-exempted goods for purposes other than prescribed without declaring the change of use purpose to the tax authority.

(k) A taxpayer engaging in business activities during a period of suspension or temporary suspension of business operations without notifying the tax authority.

What important changes are there compared to previous regulations?

Before the Law on Tax Management 2025 (No. 108/2025/QH15) took effect, tax evasion acts were already directly regulated under Article 143 of the Law on Tax Management 2019 (No. 38/2019/QH14). The new law is not the first time these acts have been codified but includes notable adjustments regarding the content and conditions for determining tax evasion.

Some important changes include:

First, addition of conditions regarding tax consequences for late submission of documents beyond 90 days. Point a of Clause 4, Article 45 of the new Law ties the act of failure to submit tax registration documents, failure to submit tax declaration documents, or submission of tax declaration documents beyond 90 days to consequences of insufficient amount of tax to be paid or an increase in the amount of tax exempted, reduced, or refunded.

Second, clarification of the act of failure to issue invoices and failure to declare tax. Point c of Clause 4, Article 45 adds the content of failure to declare tax when selling goods or providing services alongside the act of failure to issue invoices, while continuing to regulate the case of recording value on invoices lower than the actual settlement value for tax declaration purposes.

Third, adjustment of conditions for determining tax evasion regarding exported and imported goods. According to point e of Clause 4, Article 45, the act of declaring false information regarding exported or imported goods is considered tax evasion when the violating person does not voluntarily remedy consequences by paying the full amount of tax to be paid as prescribed. This provision differs from the 2019 Law, which tied tax evasion to failure to file supplementary tax declaration documents after goods had cleared customs.

Fourth, continuation of the mechanism exempting punishment for tax evasion in certain cases of late document submission. Point l of Clause 4, Article 45 specifically regulates cases where taxpayers are only punished for violation of tax procedures, thereby clarifying the boundary between tax evasion and violation of tax procedures when the legally prescribed conditions are met.

In which cases is there no punishment for tax evasion despite late document submission?

Clause 4, Article 45 of the Law on Tax Management 2025 (No. 108/2025/QH15) provides at point (l) that a taxpayer shall not be punished for tax evasion but shall only be punished for violation of tax procedures in cases where: failure to submit tax registration documents, failure to submit or late submission of tax declaration documents beyond 90 days but no tax to be paid has been generated; or tax has been generated but the taxpayer has paid the full amount of tax and late payment penalties before the time the tax authority announces a tax inspection decision or before the tax authority prepares a record of the act of late submission of tax declaration documents. This is an important protection point for enterprises with procedural errors but without intent to evade taxes.

However, it should be noted that an act falling under Clause 4, Article 45 does not mean that in all cases the person committing it automatically commits the crime of tax evasion. Criminal liability may still be considered independently according to the provisions of the current Criminal Code, including conditions regarding acts, amounts of evaded tax, and other legally prescribed conditions.

Example in specialized field: What is the level of punishment for tax evasion in the customs field?

For exported and imported goods, Decree 169/2026/NĐ-CP – Provisions on Administrative Penalties for Violations in the Customs Field provides at Clause 2, Article 15 specific punishment levels as follows:

a) A fine of 01 times the evaded tax amount in cases without aggravating circumstances;
b) In cases with aggravating circumstances, each aggravating circumstance increases the fine by 0.2 times but not exceeding 03 times the evaded tax amount.

In addition, Clause 3, Article 15 of Decree 169/2026/NĐ-CP further provides a mandatory measure to remedy consequences: mandatory payment of the full evaded tax amount for all violations under this Article. Note that the punishment level mentioned above applies to violations under Clause 1, Article 15 where the taxpayer is not prosecuted for criminal liability. At the same time, according to Clause 4 of this Article, the punishment mechanism in Article 15 does not apply to violations under Articles 16 to 23 of the Decree.

What should enterprises pay attention to in order to avoid being determined as committing tax evasion?

Based on Clause 4, Article 45 of the Law on Tax Management 2025 (No. 108/2025/QH15), enterprises should pay particular attention to the following points in their practical operations:

• Always issue and provide invoices at the actual value when selling goods or providing services — do not record lower than the actual settlement value.

• Fully record all revenue amounts related to tax obligations in accounting books.

• Do not use unlawful invoices or documents or documents that do not reflect the true nature of transactions.

• Promptly declare to the tax authority when changing the purpose of use of tax-exempted goods.

• Implement notification of temporary suspension of business operations to the competent authority and tax authority as prescribed; do not continue business operations contrary to the suspension status that has been registered or notified.

• For exported and imported goods, enterprises should establish procedures to review and timely file supplementary customs documents when discovering errors. Proactive declaration of supplements and remedying tax obligations is important in determining the nature of violations and applicable sanctions. Enterprises should compare the conditions in Clause 2, Article 44, Clause 3 and Clause 4, Article 45 of the Law on Tax Management 2025 before implementation.

Enterprises operating in the import-export field should also read Article 15 of Decree 169/2026/NĐ-CP to clearly understand specific tax evasion acts in the customs field and corresponding handling measures.

If your enterprise is facing the risk of additional tax collection or needs to review tax compliance, A&D Law Firm and A&D Accounting & Tax are ready to assist in analyzing risks and proposing solutions suited to each specific situation.

This article is for reference purposes only and does not replace formal legal advice for specific cases. Please contact a lawyer for advice suited to your enterprise's actual situation.