The penalty for filing a tax return late: what one day past the deadline costs
What does filing a tax return late cost — even when nothing is misstated and no tax is owed? Điều 13 of Decree 125/2020 grades the fine by how many days late you are, from a warning up to 15–25 million đồng. Here is the day-band table, the business-level amounts, the "capped at the tax arising" ceiling with its floor, and why this is a separate, additive charge on top of late-payment interest.
There is one penalty a great many businesses only learn about once they have been caught by it: the penalty for filing the tax return late. It does not care whether your figures are right or wrong, whether you owe tax or not — all it needs is a return submitted after the deadline, and one day is enough to trigger it. It is the most common filing error, and the one least connected to whether your numbers add up.
Three different charges when a return has a problem
The easiest thing to get wrong is lumping every penalty together. In fact a “problem” return can give rise to three separate charges, each under its own article of law:
- Late-payment interest on the tax itself — interest of
0.03%/dayon the underpaid tax, under Điều 59 of Law on Tax Administration 38/2019/QH14. Charged when you pay the tax late. - Penalty for misstating figures leading to a shortfall — 20% of the understated tax, under Điều 16 of Decree 125/2020/NĐ-CP. Charged when you declare the wrong number.
- Penalty for filing the tax return late — a fixed administrative fine for submitting the return itself past its deadline, under Điều 13 of Decree 125/2020/NĐ-CP. Charged when you file the return late — regardless of whether the other two arise.
This post is about the third one. It hangs on how many days late you are relative to the deadline, not on the amount of tax — so a business that forgets to file its quarterly 01/GTGT (VAT) or annual 03/TNDN (CIT) return incurs this charge even if not a single đồng was understated.
The penalty bands by days late (Điều 13)
Điều 13 grades the fine into five bands by number of days late. The figures below are the amounts for an organisation — which is exactly what a business is — so they apply directly, not halved:
| Days past the deadline | Fine (business) | Điều 13 |
|---|---|---|
| 1–5 days late and with mitigating circumstances | Warning (no monetary fine) | khoản 1 |
| 1–30 days late | 2 – 5 million đồng | khoản 2 |
| 31–60 days late | 5 – 8 million đồng | khoản 3 |
| 61–90 days late, or over 90 days with no tax arising to pay | 8 – 15 million đồng | khoản 4 |
| Over 90 days late and with tax arising to pay | 15 – 25 million đồng | khoản 5 |
Each band is a range (khung phạt), not a fixed figure: the tax authority picks a point inside the range, and where there is no aggravating or mitigating circumstance it takes the midpoint of the range (Law on Handling of Administrative Violations, Điều 23 khoản 4).
A note on “organisation” vs “individual”. Decree 125/2020 (Điều 7) states that the monetary amounts in Chapter II are the organisation-level figures; individuals pay half. That is the opposite direction from the familiar shorthand “organisations pay double individuals” — the text of the law is already the organisation figure. A business is an organisation, so the table above applies as written.
Two things easily missed
1. The “capped at the tax arising” ceiling — but with a floor. For the over-90-days band where tax arises (khoản 5), if the calculated fine works out larger than the tax shown on the return, the fine is capped at the tax arising and payable — but not below the midpoint of the khoản 4 range (around 11.5 million). Put another way: a return filed more than 90 days late whose tax is only 6 million still cannot be fined down below ~11.5 million. This is a two-sided bound — a ceiling and a floor — not simply “take the smaller number”.
2. This is an additional charge, not a replacement. Điều 13 khoản 6 requires the taxpayer to still pay the full late-payment interest on the tax (the Điều 59 interest at charge #1 above) and to file the return. In other words the late-filing penalty and the late-payment interest stack — it is not a choose-one. A return that is both filed late and understated can carry all three charges at once.
The heavier threshold: past 90 days can become tax evasion
Go beyond the ~90-day mark with tax arising to pay and the return still not filed, and the conduct can be re-characterised as tax evasion (Điều 17 of Decree 125/2020) — a fine of 1–3 times the evaded tax, or a criminal referral. This is a warning, not a figure to estimate: Kê Khai names the threshold so you know not to leave a return hanging that long, but deliberately does not compute the Điều 17 charge — that heavier level is determined by the tax authority.
Does Decree 310/2025 (effective 16/01/2026) change the amounts?
No. Decree 310/2025/NĐ-CP amends parts of Decree 125/2020, but it does not touch the day-bands or the amounts in Điều 13. It only clarifies the date the violation is committed (used to compute the 2-year statute of limitations for penalising) — affecting when the tax authority still has the right to penalise, not how much. So a return filed after 16/01/2026 still takes the exact Điều 13 table above.
Legal basis
True to Kê Khai’s every figure carries its article of law principle, every number above traces back to the source text on the State’s official portals:
- The day-graded penalty bands: Decree 125/2020/NĐ-CP, Điều 13 — the five late-filing bands; khoản 5’s “capped at the tax arising” ceiling; khoản 6’s remedial measure (the late-payment interest still stacks on top).
- Organisation / individual amounts: Decree 125/2020/NĐ-CP, Điều 7 — the monetary figures in Chapter II are the organisation-level amounts; individuals pay half.
- The tax-evasion threshold (warning only): Decree 125/2020/NĐ-CP, Điều 17.
- Late-payment interest on the tax (a separate charge): Law on Tax Administration 38/2019/QH14, Điều 59 — interest of 0.03%/day on the underpaid tax.
- No change to the penalty from 2026: Decree 310/2025/NĐ-CP — effective 16/01/2026; only clarifies the violation date for the statute of limitations, leaving the Điều 13 amounts unchanged.
Kê Khai estimates this charge for you
Kê Khai knows the statutory deadline of each filing period (quarterly VAT, annual CIT) and compares it against today’s date to tell you which Điều 13 penalty band you have fallen into — as a reference exposure figure, with the article of law behind it, kept clearly separate from the late-payment interest (Điều 59) and the 20% misstatement penalty (Điều 16). This is an estimate, not a certain fine — the final number is set by the tax authority within the range.
You can open the Kê Khai app to see your current filing period and the self-check section, or read more on why every figure carries the law.
This is the English edition of a Vietnamese-first advisory. Read the original: Phạt chậm nộp tờ khai thuế: nộp muộn một ngày là bao nhiêu tiền?.