From 2026, business households with late tax registration may be fined up to 10 million VND according to new regulations. However, in some cases, proactively overcoming violations may help business households not be fined, but only be subject to a warning form according to legal regulations.
Penalty framework for late tax registration applied from 2026
According to Article 10 of Decree 125/2020/ND-CP of the Government stipulating penalties for administrative violations in the field of taxes and invoices, amended and supplemented by Clause 8, Article 1 of Decree 310/2025/ND-CP (effective from January 16, 2026), the act of late tax registration is determined to be an administrative violation of tax procedures.
Based on this regulation, the penalty level for business households is determined according to the number of days of late registration, specifically:
- Delays from 1 to 10 days, with mitigating circumstances: application of warning form;
- Delays from 1 to 30 days (not subject to warning): fine from 1,000,000 VND to 2,000,000 VND;
- Delays from 31 to 90 days: fine from 3,000,000 VND to 6,000,000 VND;
- Delay from 91 days or more: fine from 6,000,000 VND to 10,000,000 VND.
This regulation does not distinguish between business households that have generated revenue or not, but only bases on the time of late tax registration and related details.
Is self-remediation synonymous with "immunity"?
Current law does not use the term "sanction exemption" for late tax registration. However, according to the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations in 2012 (amended and supplemented), warnings are an official form of administrative violation punishment, not accompanied by fines.
According to the provisions of the law, the form of warning is applied to less serious violations, when the violator violates for the first time and there are mitigating circumstances as prescribed in Article 8 of the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations.
Therefore, in cases where business households are late in tax registration but proactively carry out supplementary registration, honest declaration and cooperation with competent authorities, if they fully meet the conditions according to the law, they may only be subject to a warning form, which means they do not have to pay fines, but are still administratively handled.
Conditions for being considered for applying the form of warning
Based on Article 10 of Decree 125/2020/ND-CP (amended and supplemented by Clause 8, Article 1 of Decree 310/2025/ND-CP) and Article 8 of the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations, business households with late tax registration can only be considered for the form of warning when simultaneously meeting the following conditions:
- Delays in tax registration are cases from 1 to 10 days;
- The violation is determined to be a first-time violation, less serious;
- There are mitigating circumstances, of which the most common is proactive tax registration before the tax authority detects and makes a record of violation;
- At the time of late registration, no tax obligations have arisen or have not been determined to be paid.
Conversely, if the registration delay is prolonged, business households have incurred business activities and revenue, or only remedy them after being detected by competent authorities, they are not eligible to apply the form of warning and will be fined according to the above regulations.
From 2026, business households with late tax registration will be penalized according to Article 10 of Decree 125/2020/ND-CP, which has been amended and supplemented by Clause 8, Article 1 of Decree 310/2025/ND-CP, with a maximum fine of up to 10 million VND. However, in the case of the first violation, the time is short and there are mitigating circumstances according to the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations, proactively overcoming may help business households only be warned and not have to pay fines.
Understanding and applying these regulations correctly is the basis for business households to fulfill tax obligations in accordance with the law, limiting unnecessary penalty risks.
