Sanctioning businesses for late payment of value-added tax (VAT) declarations even though revenue is not generated or the amount of tax payable is continuing to cause many mixed opinions. In the context that tax authorities have managed electronic invoice data in real time, many businesses and experts believe that it is necessary to study adjusting declaration regulations for periods that do not incur tax obligations, thereby reducing administrative procedures and compliance costs for taxpayers.
A representative of a business in Hanoi said that in the first quarter of 2026, the business did not incur production and business activities, did not issue invoices and did not incur the amount of VAT payable, the business did not submit the VAT declaration for the first quarter of 2026 on time.
After reviewing the dossier, the enterprise discovered that it had exceeded the deadline for submitting the declaration. Although no tax amount had to be paid, the enterprise was still administratively sanctioned for late payment of tax declaration dossiers.
A business representative said that the unit complies with the penalty decision. However, in the context that the tax authority has managed electronic invoice data, the business proposed that functional agencies study simplifying procedures for declaration periods that do not generate invoices, do not generate revenue and do not generate tax payable to reduce compliance costs.
Sharing more about another real case, Mr. Le Van Tuan - Director of Tax Accounting of Keytas - said that the unit has just received a dossier from a business established from the beginning of 2026 but has not generated production and business activities. Because the business owner thought that there was no revenue, no invoices were issued, they did not have to declare VAT, so they missed the VAT declaration for the first quarter of 2026.
According to Mr. Tuan, after reviewing, the enterprise submitted additional dossiers but was still fined 11.5 million VND for late submission of declarations for 67 days according to the provisions of Decree No. 125/2020/ND-CP, even though no VAT amount to be paid was incurred.
From this case, Mr. Tuan believes that the current penalty regulations have legal basis. "In terms of legal regulations, the tax authority's penalty is correct. However, what worries many businesses is whether such a penalty level is really necessary for a dossier that does not generate tax obligations or not," Mr. Tuan said.
According to Mr. Tuan, the goal of sanctions is to raise awareness of compliance with tax laws. However, for VAT declarations that do not generate revenue, do not have output invoices and do not generate tax payable, the deterrent factor is no longer as meaningful as before.
He analyzed that before applying electronic invoices, the tax authority relied significantly on the business's declaration to summarize data on revenue, output tax, and input tax. But now, all electronic invoices have been transmitted directly to the tax authority as soon as they arise, so the business transaction data has basically been grasped by the management agency.
In case businesses do not generate output invoices, or even no transactions in the period, still requiring VAT declaration, in my opinion, is a procedure that needs to be studied and adjusted to suit the new management method," Mr. Tuan stated his point of view.
According to the expert, management agencies may consider exempting the obligation to submit declarations for periods when no revenue or invoices are generated; and at the same time consider simplifying declaration for cases where only input invoices are generated but no output invoices are. This not only helps reduce compliance costs for businesses but also contributes to reducing administrative procedures, in line with the policy of digital transformation in tax management.
