Customs Administration expressed its adoption of guidelines for post-clearance audit of the World Customs Organization (WCO) in September 2019, introduced a law-abiding self-assessment system to guide traders, and revised the operation directions for such audit. This measure has been implemented for more than 2 years. Due to the continuous growth of traders’ voluntary compliance, the amount of tax repayment has reached NT$113.4 million in 2022, accounting for nearly 40% of the total tax repayment amount after the measure was implemented during the same period. It is obvious that the Administration’s work has achieved results.
The Administration further stated that before the post-clearance audit, they will submit the trader's compliance self-assessment form and related decree materials to help the trader to complete the self-assessment work. If there is factual evidence submitted to the Customs, anti-smuggling regulations will be exempted for the trader from penalty.
The Administration explained that the self-assessment system for industry compliance mainly focuses on guiding traders to understand relevant laws and regulations, and assisting them in self-checking whether there are violations or errors in the declaration materials, so as to reduce the risk of traders violating regulations due to lack of intact internal control mechanisms or unfamiliarity with relevant legal requirements. Furthermore, the measure also improves traders' lawful knowledge and law-abiding concepts, and helps them to make correct payments of various taxes and fees. Since voluntary disclosure makes tax repayment exempt from penalty, it has been generally supported by traders since its implementation, and Customs can obtain the actual transaction price provided by the trader, which is beneficial for Customs to grasp the market situation and focus on specific inspections, which is of great help to maintaining fair trade in the market. Benefits can be described as a win-win situation.
Lastly, the Administration emphasized that the post-clearance audit by Customs is based on the trader's cooperation in investigations, voluntary submission of evidence, and the degree of compliance with laws and regulations. A grading system based on the results of aforementioned audit is put in place to monitor traders by classification. For compliant traders, Customs will speed up the clearance of their goods. For traders with lawful concerns, they will strengthen the review of their declaration materials. The Administration urges traders to check whether there is any error or violation in the declared data when they are notified to conduct a compliance self-assessment, and afterwards actively report to Customs for corrections, so as to improve the level of compliance, avoid penalties for violations, and reduce operational risks. If traders have further questions, they are welcome to contact Customs for more counseling.
Phone: (02)2550-5500 ext.2780