Yongpai: A foreign trade enterprise in Ningbo received "integrity benefits" from customs and voluntarily disclosed new measures to further benefit the enterprise

Yongpai Client Correspondents Tan Jiayuan and Ju Yuhua

Recently, Mr. Zhou, the person in charge of a certain supply chain management company in Ningbo, received an effective implementation agreement for the reduction and exemption of customs late fees in the tax processing module of the "China International Trade Single Window". With this agreement, the company can reduce the late fees by more than 15000 yuan.
It is reported that the company had previously submitted an "Active Disclosure Report" to Lishe Customs, a subsidiary of Ningbo Customs, for failing to report freight and miscellaneous fees when declaring some imported goods, and applied to make up for the tax according to customs regulations. After receiving the application from the enterprise, Lishe Customs conducted verification operations and determined that it meets the conditions for voluntary disclosure. It will not be subject to administrative penalties in accordance with the law and will take relevant follow-up actions. After paying the relevant taxes according to regulations, the company, under the guidance of Lishe Customs officers, applied for a legal reduction of tax late fees through the newly launched paperless application for tax late fee reduction, and ultimately obtained the reduction.
After discovering that more than ten imported goods had missed reporting freight and miscellaneous fees, we immediately thought of the proactive disclosure policy that the customs had announced. Mr. Zhou said that this proactive disclosure not only helped the company avoid punishment and reduce late fees, but more importantly, maintained the company's image of honesty and law-abiding. The company has optimized its internal customs audit mechanism based on this experience.
On September 28, 2025, the General Administration of Customs issued the "Announcement on Handling Matters Related to Active Disclosure of Violations" (Announcement [2025] No. 194), further optimizing the conditions for non punishment, expanding the scope of application of active disclosure, and increasing efforts to benefit enterprises on the basis of the original policy.
In order to continuously release the benefits of proactive disclosure policies, Lishe Customs has created a three-dimensional publicity matrix of "offline publicity+online promotion+on-site visits", promoting the new policies through policy lectures, new media and other means, and combining field law enforcement and inspection follow-up "one-on-one" to explain policies and guide enterprises to carry out compliance self inspections. The customs will clarify the acceptance department, set up dedicated personnel and positions to implement one-time notification, strengthen internal coordination and cooperation in inspection, taxation and other positions, further compress the time of review, disposal and other links, effectively enhance the sense of gain of enterprises, and inject momentum and vitality into optimizing the business environment.
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What is proactive disclosure?
Proactive disclosure by customs is an incentive mechanism for 'compliance and tolerance'. Import and export enterprises and units that conduct self inspection and discover violations of customs regulations in their import and export activities shall proactively report in writing to customs before being discovered, accept customs processing, and make timely corrections. Customs shall impose lenient, mitigated, or no administrative penalties in accordance with the law, which is a policy of benefiting enterprises.
What are the new policy dividends?
Compared with Announcement No. 127 of 2023, Announcement No. 194 of the General Administration of Customs in 2025 provides enterprises with a more relaxed environment for self-examination and error correction, further expanding the scope of fault tolerance.
1. The exemption period for tax violations has been extended from six months to one year
Tax violations voluntarily disclosed within one year will not be subject to administrative penalties; For those who voluntarily disclose within two years but have exceeded one year, and whose tax evasion or underpayment ratio is less than 30% or the amount is less than RMB 1 million, they can also be exempted from punishment.
2. Tolerant treatment affecting national export tax rebate management
Those who voluntarily disclose within one year will not be subject to administrative penalties; Those who voluntarily disclose within two years but have exceeded one year may be exempt from penalties if their tax refund ratio is less than 30% or the amount is less than RMB 1 million.
3. Error correction mechanism for declaration of processing trade unit consumption
For those whose actual unit consumption is lower than the declared unit consumption due to process improvement or other reasons, and the resulting surplus materials, semi-finished products, and finished products have not been disposed of, or have been re exported through processing trade, no administrative penalty shall be imposed.
4. Exemption from the application of specific regulations
For violations that are subject to the provisions of Article 15 (1) and (2) of the Implementation Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Customs Administrative Penalties and specific circumstances under Article 18, those who meet the conditions may be exempted from punishment.
5. The situation and conditions for exemption from penalties in the field of inspection and quarantine have been further optimized
The exemption from penalties for violations in the field of inspection and quarantine has been adjusted from 6 to 5, and the applicable conditions have been adjusted uniformly to "those who can handle customs procedures in a timely manner, have not caused harmful consequences, and have a value of less than 500000 yuan or are subject to warnings or a maximum fine of less than 30000 yuan as stipulated by laws, administrative regulations, and customs rules".
What other benefits does Huiqi offer?
Late payment penalty reduction: Enterprises can proactively report tax violations in writing and make timely corrections. After being recognized by customs, they can apply for tax late payment penalty reduction in accordance with the law.
Credit protection: The act of import and export enterprises or units voluntarily disclosing and being warned or fined less than 1 million yuan by customs shall not be included in the record of customs recognition of the enterprise's credit status.
Policy application restrictions
If the same violation of customs regulations is voluntarily disclosed for the second time or more within one year (12 consecutive months), the provisions of the announcement shall not apply; If the enterprise voluntarily discloses one or more rights licenses granted by the rights holder to the authorized person based on the same goods, the provisions of the announcement shall not apply.
How to apply for proactive disclosure?
Import and export enterprises and units can report to the customs at the place of declaration, actual import and export place, or registered place. You can apply through both online and offline channels, where you can submit documents at the relevant customs business site offline; Materials can be submitted online through the website of the General Administration of Customs. When applying for an enterprise, it is necessary to fill out the "Active Disclosure Report Form" and attach accounting books and documents.