General Financial Directorate has issued a new guideline on waiver of tax accessories: penalties can now be waived up to 100%

The General Financial Directorate has issued a new guideline on the remission of tax accessories, GFD-D-72, which took effect on 15 September 2025. This guideline replaces the earlier guideline GFD-D-67 of 13 February 2025 and responds to the amendment to the Tax Code effective from 1 July 2025. It now allows the full amount of the penalty to be waived, i.e. up to 100%.

The previous legislation allowed for a maximum waiver of up to 75% of the penalty, depending on the level of cooperation of the taxpayer during the assessment procedure. This standard mode remains unchanged even after the amendment, and the guideline continues to take it into account.

In contrast, the possibility of full remission of penalty is newly introduced. This applies to penalties incurred from 1 July 2025, with the decisive moment according to the guideline being the date of notification of the additional tax assessment.

The guideline regulates two categories of situations, where the penalty can be waived in full, namely:

1. Justifiable situation

The guideline explicitly mentions only one specific example of a situation that can be considered justifiable:

“The taxpayer submitted an inadmissible supplementary tax return before the audit procedure was initiated, and the tax administrator used the information contained therein to determine the final tax amount, whereby the additional tax assessed does not exceed twice the amount claimed by the taxpayer.”

However, this list does not preclude the tax administrator from waiving the penalty in the amount of 100% in other cases if it finds that the reason for the penalty is justified, i.e. the tax administrator may waive “even beyond the guideline”.

If a justifiable situation did not occur for the taxpayer, a maximum of 75% of the penalty imposed may be waived – the extent of the taxpayer’s cooperation is assessed by the tax administrator. In practice, a waiver of the full 75% can often be achieved.

2. Avoidance of double punishment

The second situation allowing up to 100% remission is where the taxpayer has beenfinally convicted of a tax-related offence, to which the penalty is an accessory. To avoid duplication of penalties, the tax administrator may reduce or waive the penalty depending on the type and amount of the penalty imposed in the criminal proceedings.

The full text of the Guideline No. GFD-D-72 on the waiver of tax accessories can be found here.