[The State Administration of Taxation releases nationally unified tax administrative penalty discretionary standards] On September 30, the State Administration of Taxation recently issued an announcement and released the "National Tax Administrative Penalty Discretionary Standards (2026 Edition)", which will come into effect on November 1, 2026, marking the nationwide unification of tax administrative penalty discretionary standards. According to the relevant person in charge of the Policy and Regulations Department of the State Administration of Taxation, the tax department continues to promote the standardization of tax administrative penalty discretion, and gradually formulates corresponding tax administrative penalty discretionary benchmarks in accordance with the model of "provincial unification" to "regional unification" and then to "national unification". At the beginning of 2025, the taxation bureaus of relevant provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities and cities under separate state planning in Northeast, Southwest, Northwest, Central and South, North China, East China and other regions have jointly released benchmarks for tax administrative penalty discretion in each region. On the basis of fully absorbing the practical results of various regions, the State Administration of Taxation has comprehensively optimized the discretionary levels, applicable conditions, and specific standards for 66 tax administrative penalty matters in 9 categories, promoting a more reasonable classification of tax violations, a more scientific setting of discretionary factors, and a more accurate grasp of the discretionary scale, which is conducive to unifying tax law enforcement standards, standardizing tax law enforcement behaviors, and improving the certainty of tax law enforcement. The announcement also released the "List of Tax Administrative Penalties "Minor No-Penalty" Matters", covering 8 administrative penalty matters summarized from the tax administrative penalty discretionary benchmarks. The announcement also puts forward clear requirements for local tax authorities to implement nationally unified tax administrative penalty discretionary standards, emphasizing that penalties must be strictly implemented in accordance with laws and regulations, and penalty decisions must be made within the scope of the discretionary standards to protect the legitimate rights and interests of taxpayers and payers. The above-mentioned person in charge said that unifying the discretionary basis for tax administrative penalties is an important measure for the tax department to consolidate and expand the learning and education results of establishing and practicing the correct concept of political performance, further safeguard the fairness of the rule of law, and strengthen compliance management. In the next step, the tax department will continue to implement the system, strengthen training, interpretation, publicity and guidance, and conduct timely dynamic updates to continuously improve the efficiency of tax law enforcement, optimize the tax business environment, and help build a unified national market.