It is the entrepreneur’s duty to calculate the VAT due to the tax office and then pay the amount to the tax office’s account. For various reasons, business owners often exceed the deadline for paying the tax. This situation may result in penalties. Read the article to the end and find out what the penalty for non-payment of VAT is.
Late payment of VAT
If a taxpayer has filed a correctly completed return by the due date, but fails to pay the tax on time, he need not fear a fine from the tax authorities. However, this situation can occur only once. A penalty is prescribed at the time of persistent failure to pay the tax on time. The fine for such an offence may amount up to PLN 32 thousand. The court may waive the penalty if the entrepreneur has paid the tax due in full before the proceedings were initiated. This is no longer possible after the proceedings have been initiated.
What is the penalty for failure to pay VAT? – Tax evasion
A taxpayer who evades tax is in a completely different situation. This is the case when an entrepreneur failed to disclose to the tax office the events which should be included in the taxable base. Additionally, failure to file a timely VAT return is also considered an evasion. Depending on the social harm of the act, an appropriate penalty is imposed. If the amount of unpaid tax does not exceed the threshold of PLN 8,000, the incident is classified as a misdemeanor punishable by up to PLN 32,000. However, if the unpaid tax is greater, but does not exceed the amount of PLN 320 thousand, the act will be considered a privileged offense. In that case, the business owner may be fined up to 720 daily rates. In practice, this means an amount of up to over PLN 15 million.
Tax fraud
According to the Fiscal Penal Code, tax fraud is a situation where a taxpayer presents to the tax office calculations in which he conceals part of his turnover in a declaration. The penalty in this case is the same as in tax evasion. Thus, it may amount up to PLN 32 thousand (if the tax due is up to PLN 8 thousand) or up to PLN 15 million (above the amount of PLN 8 thousand).