On September 28, 2026, the State Taxation Administration released the "National Tax Administrative Penalty Discretion Benchmark (2026 Edition)", and the new regulations come into effect on November 1. The most crucial change brought about by this document is the unification of tax administrative penalties across the country. After the new regulations are implemented, if there is a conflict between the current discretionary rules of various regions and the national benchmark, the national benchmark shall be uniformly followed. This article dissects and sorts out the new regulations from four dimensions: legal positioning, coverage scope, discretion classification, and compliance suggestions, for the reference of Kaizen's existing and potential clients.
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Legal Position
Regarding the legal positioning of the "National Tax Administrative Penalty Discretion Benchmark (2026 Edition)", this is a very notable point in this new regulation. When the tax authorities issue penalty documents, they should explain the applicable circumstances in the penalty decision, but they cannot merely cite this document as the legal basis for the administrative penalty.
In simple terms, the function of this document is to break down the broad penalty ranges stipulated in the superior laws into a set of clear, easy-to-implement gradient rules and applicable scenarios. It cannot create new penalty items or exceed the types of penalties and the upper and lower limits of fines as stipulated by the law. What truly has legal effect is still the laws and administrative regulations such as the "Tax Collection and Administration Law", "Social Insurance Law", and "Invoice Management Measures".
Kaizen reminds that when enterprises receive the penalty decision document, they should focus on checking: If the document only quotes the "National Tax Administrative Penalty Discretion Benchmark (2026 Edition)" without listing the corresponding legal provisions, it is considered a procedural defect, and enterprises can raise objections based on this.
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Coverage Area
The national benchmark covers 9 major categories and 66 types of tax violations. Specifically, it is divided into: tax registration management (items 1-10), account book and voucher management (items 11-15), tax declaration management (items 16-18), tax (fee) collection management (items 19-30), tax inspection management (items 31-33), invoice and ticket management (items 34-59), tax guarantee management (items 60-62), tax-related professional service management (items 63-65), and tax information reporting (item 66).
Among them, it is worth paying attention to the penalty of unpaid social insurance premiums. This item is classified under the 30th category of "Violation of Tax (Fee) Collection and Management", marking the first time that violations of social security contribution regulations have been incorporated into the national unified framework for tax administrative penalty discretion. It comprehensively determines based on two indicators: the size of the outstanding amount and the proportion of the outstanding amount to the total amount due, and sets up three levels of discretion gradients:
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Rank
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Applicable
conditions
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Penalty
range
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First level
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The unpaid amount is less than 500,000 yuan;
Or between 500,000 yuan and 5 million yuan with a proportion less than
30%
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1 time of the amount owed
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Second level
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500,000 to 5 million yuan and accounting for
more than 30%；
Or over 5 million yuan and accounting for less
than 30%
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More than 1 times but less than 2 times
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Third level
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More than 5 million yuan and accounted for more
than 30%
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More than 2 times but less than 3 times
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Meanwhile, according to Article 86 of the Social Insurance Law: If an employer fails to pay social insurance premiums on time and in full, the collection agency shall order it to make the payment within a specified period or make up the shortfall, and impose a late payment penalty of 0.5% per day from the date of default; if the employer still fails to pay after the deadline, a fine of one to three times the amount of the default payment will be imposed.
Kaizen reminds that late payment penalties and fines are applicable in parallel and cannot offset each other. The late payment penalty is accumulated daily starting from the day of default, while the fine is only imposed after the order to make up the payment is issued and the enterprise still fails to pay.
For instance, if a company owes 6 million yuan in social security contributions, which accounts for 35% of the total amount due, it will fall into the third discretionary range. The maximum fine can reach 18 million yuan (6 million ×3), and in addition, a late fee of 0.05% per day will be continuously charged. The late payment surcharges are continuously accumulated on a daily basis and the fines are determined all at once. The combination of these two costs will put a huge financial pressure on the enterprise.
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Discretionary Segmentation
The determination of social security arrears adopts a dual-indicator classification method of "arrears amount and proportion", which is the unified implementation of the national benchmark this time. The benchmark, in principle, classifies all 66 illegal items into four levels of discretion: minor, general, relatively serious, and severe. When the tax authorities determine the classification, they no longer only consider a single illegal circumstance. Instead, they usually make a comprehensive judgment by combining multiple factors: including the size of the involved amount, the proportion of the illegal amount to the total taxable (fee) amount, similar illegal records within five years, whether they have voluntarily self-inspected and corrected, whether they have caused the loss of tax or fee payments, and whether they have cooperated with the inspection, etc.
The fault-tolerance mechanism that enterprises are particularly concerned about, the system of no penalty for the first violation and no penalty for minor violations, will continue to be applied. The "first-time violation not punished" policy refers to tax-related matters that occur for the first time, have minor harmful consequences, and are promptly corrected; the "minor violation not punished" policy focuses on the relatively minor nature of the illegal act itself. Even if it is not the first occurrence, as long as the legal conditions are met, the offender takes the initiative to correct the behavior and does not cause any harmful consequences, no administrative penalty will be imposed.
Kaizen reminds that the fault-tolerance mechanism is not a "universal channel for exemption from penalties" and has a clear scope of exclusion. For instance, as mentioned earlier, the arrears of social security fees fall under the category of fee loss and generally cannot be subject to minor non-penalty or first-time non-penalty. Enterprises cannot expect to be able to avoid fines simply by "actively making up the payment" after a social security payment default. The payment is merely to meet the requirements for rectification orders; if the overdue situation persists, the risk of fines still exists.
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Kaizen Suggestion
With the implementation of the unified national discretionary standards, enterprises can no longer view social security management and tax management separately. Based on the key points of the new regulations, Kaizen has sorted out several operational behaviors that can be implemented:
(1)
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Carry out a joint self-examination of taxes and fees
Integrate tax declaration, invoice management and social security payment into the same risk screening list, with a focus on verifying issues such as outstanding payment, late payment and inconsistent declaration data. Early detection and early handling should be carried out to prevent the accumulation of risks.
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(2)
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Prioritize proactive correction of tax and fee-related problems
Before the tax filing and verification, complete the supplementary reporting and payment, and simultaneously keep the full set of materials including the self-inspection statement, transfer vouchers, and rectification records. Actively eliminating the negative consequences is the most powerful condition for achieving a lower discretion level in actual operations.
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(3)
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Unified risk system for group and trans-regional enterprises
The situation where different regions had different discretionary standards in the past will become a thing of the past. Enterprises can refer to this national benchmark to update their internal tax-related systems and approval processes, so that their branches in different regions can implement unified compliance standards, reducing the uncertainty caused by differences in cross-regional law enforcement.
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The core of this "National Tax Administrative Penalty Discretionary Benchmark (2026 Edition)" is to achieve "same penalty for the same case" and reduce the space for discretionary power. On the one hand, it has clarified the fault-tolerant channels, providing opportunities for rectifying minor procedural violations. On the other hand, for behaviors involving tax loss such as social security arrears, tax evasion, and illegal invoicing, the penalty rules have become clearer. The cost risk of late payment penalties combined with fines cannot be ignored.
The expert team of
Kaizen Group has been deeply engaged in human resources, social security and tax and finance compliance services for many years. They are proficient in self-examination of tax and fee-related risks, as well as review and response to tax documents. Our company's services cover all types of enterprises and are committed to building a stable personnel and tax compliance system for our clients, facilitating the smooth implementation of employment management, social security declaration, and tax control for enterprises, and avoiding penalty risks. If you have any questions related to personnel, social security, taxes and fees compliance, please feel free to contact our consulting team at any time.
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