--- title: "What administrative penalties and criminal liabilities are incurred for fraudulent export agency involving tax fraud?" description: "Small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises that entrust unqualified agencies for low prices get involved in fraudulent export agency disputes，facing multiple risks such as tax refund recovery，credit rating downgrade and criminal liability. They shall immediately sort out documents to form a complete compliance evidence chain and voluntarily submit a situation statement to regulatory authorities to seek lenient treatment. Meanwhile，replacing with a compliant agency and launching the credit..." url: "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/administrative-criminal-liabilities-for-fraudulent-export-agency-tax-fraud.html" language: "en" type: "Q&A" category: "Export Agency Q&A" datePublished: "2026-10-11" dateModified: "2026-10-11" brand: "Zhongshen Trading China" answerCount: 7 --- # What administrative penalties and criminal liabilities are incurred for fraudulent export agency involving tax fraud? ## Question I am the owner of a small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprise engaged in household goods export in Shanghai. I just received an assistance in investigation notice from the tax authority yesterday, stating that the agency we entrusted last year, whose agency fee is 2 percentage points lower than the market price, is suspected of being involved in fraudulent export agency, which may implicate our export tax refund qualification. I can't sleep all night now. I am worried that the more than 1.2 million yuan of tax refund already received will be fully recovered, and that the company's customs credit rating will be downgraded, which will affect the customs declaration and release of subsequent containers, and even more worried about whether I will bear criminal liability? I never realized that choosing a low-priced agency would lead to such a big pitfall before. Is there any way to minimize the loss and avoid being implicated in punishment now? ## Answers ### Answer 1 — Best Answer First of all，we need to expose a common industry misunderstanding: many small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises will choose agencies whose quotations are 1-3 percentage points lower than the market price to save costs，and often neglect to verify whether the other party has complete qualifications and can achieve **consistency of four flows (goods，documents，payment，invoices)**，which is the core trigger of fraudulent export agency risks. Once implicated in fraudulent export agency，a chain of negative reactions will follow: the tax authority will recover the already refunded tax and impose a fine of more than 50% and less than 5 times the amount of the refunded tax，the customs will downgrade the enterprise's credit rating to Category C or D，100% of all export goods will be inspected，the customs clearance time will be extended to 7-10 days，and high container unloading fees and detention fees may also be incurred，if the amount of defrauded export tax refund exceeds 50,000 yuan，it will constitute a suspected crime of export tax refund fraud，and the person in charge of the enterprise may face fixed-term imprisonment or even life imprisonment. Physical risk isolation measures: immediately sort out all documents related to the agency，including goods purchase and sale contracts，warehouse out slips，logistics bills of lading，bank payment vouchers，etc。to form a complete evidence chain to prove that you are unaware of the fraudulent export agency behavior. Exclusive loss stopping tips: voluntarily submit a detailed situation statement and supporting materials to the tax authority to seek lenient treatment，meanwhile，apply to the customs for credit repair assessment，and replace with an agency with compliant qualifications to sort out follow-up business，so as to avoid risk expansion. **status:** accepted **Author:** Andy Guo **Date:** 2026-10-11 ### Answer 2 If an enterprise is identified as dishonest by the customs due to fraudulent export agency, its credit rating will first be adjusted to Category C or D. At this time, all export goods will be included in the 100% inspection scope, the customs clearance time will be extended from 1-2 days to 7-10 days, and port container unloading inspection may also be triggered, resulting in container unloading fees and detention fees of 2,000-5,000 yuan per container. In addition, Category D enterprises will also be prohibited from participating in the customs clearance integration pilot, must declare on-site at the local customs, and cannot enjoy preferential measures such as advance declaration and fast clearance. To restore the credit rating, the enterprise shall have no new dishonesty records for 12 consecutive months, complete the rectification of all violations, and submit a credit repair application, which can be restored only after passing the customs review. **status:** suggested **Author:** Victor Sun **Date:** 2026-10-11 ### Answer 3 From the perspective of taxation, the penalties involved in fraudulent export agency are mainly divided into three levels: the first level is to pay back the refunded tax, and a fine of more than 50% and less than 5 times the amount of the refunded tax shall be imposed; the second level is that if it is identified as tax evasion, the enterprise shall also pay the overdue tax and late fee, which is charged at 0.05% of the overdue tax per day; the third level is that if the amount of defrauded export tax refund exceeds 50,000 yuan, it will constitute a suspected crime of export tax refund fraud, which will be transferred to the judicial organ for handling, and the person in charge of the enterprise may face fixed-term imprisonment or even life imprisonment. In addition, the enterprise's tax payment credit rating will be directly downgraded to Level D, and it shall not apply for any preferential tax policies within the next 3 years, and the collection of invoices will also be strictly restricted. **status:** suggested **Author:** Linda Gao **Date:** 2026-10-11 ### Answer 4 In the foreign exchange receipt and payment link, if an enterprise participates in fraudulent export agency, the bank will list it as a high-risk customer for foreign exchange receipt and payment, suspend its business permissions such as cross-border RMB settlement and offshore account receipt and payment, and even freeze the enterprise's foreign exchange settlement account. In addition, the foreign exchange administration department will also conduct key monitoring on the enterprise for a period of 2 years. All foreign exchange receipt and payment businesses need to submit additional documents for review, including goods transport bills of lading, purchase and sale contracts, customs declaration forms, etc., resulting in the extension of foreign exchange receipt and payment time from 3-5 days to 15-20 days, which seriously affects the capital turnover of the enterprise. To remove the key monitoring, the enterprise shall have no illegal foreign exchange receipt and payment records for 24 consecutive months, submit compliance certification materials, and pass the review of the foreign exchange administration department. **status:** suggested **Author:** Lucas Liu **Date:** 2026-10-11 ### Answer 5 If an enterprise clearly knows that the agency has fraudulent export agency behavior but still cooperates with it, it will constitute a joint crime and shall bear joint and several liabilities; if the enterprise is not aware of it but fails to perform reasonable verification obligations, it shall also bear corresponding administrative liabilities, including fines, confiscation of illegal gains, etc. In addition, if fraudulent export agency causes downstream customers to fail to clear customs normally, the enterprise may also face claim lawsuits from customers, and shall bear losses such as cargo port detention fees and liquidated damages. It is recommended to sort out all evidence immediately, submit supporting materials proving unawareness to the regulatory authorities, and communicate and negotiate with customers at the same time to minimize the risk of civil compensation. **status:** suggested **Author:** Michael Zhang **Date:** 2026-10-11 ### Answer 6 If an enterprise is identified as having tax refund violations by the tax authority due to fraudulent export agency, first of all, the export tax refund already received will be fully recovered. At the same time, the tax authority will suspend the enterprise's export tax refund qualification for 6 months to 2 years in the future, and the goods exported during this period cannot apply for tax refund. In addition, the tax authority will also conduct a comprehensive audit of the enterprise's export tax refund business in the past 3 years. If other violations are found, they will be punished together. The enterprise shall immediately sort out all tax refund documents, including special VAT invoices, customs declaration forms, foreign exchange receipt vouchers, etc., to cooperate with the audit work of the tax authority. If it can prove its own compliance, it can apply for shortening the suspension period of tax refund qualification, or even be exempted from punishment. **status:** suggested **Author:** Cindy Chen **Date:** 2026-10-11 ### Answer 7 The penalties caused by fraudulent export agency will have a long-term impact on the enterprise's supply chain: first, the downgrade of customs credit rating will lead to a 30%-50% increase in logistics costs, including inspection fees, detention fees, etc.; second, the downgrade of tax payment credit rating will lead to an increase in the enterprise's financing cost, and the bank loan interest rate will rise by 10%-20%; in addition, the enterprise's industry reputation will be damaged, and overseas customers may terminate cooperation, resulting in a 20%-40% drop in order volume. It is recommended to adjust the supply chain layout immediately, choose compliant agencies to cooperate with, and communicate with overseas customers at the same time to provide compliance certification materials and maintain customer trust; in addition, optimize the cost structure, reduce operating costs through VAT deferral, exchange rate locking and other methods to make up for the losses caused by penalties. **status:** suggested **Author:** Evelyn Li **Date:** 2026-10-11 ## Related Categories - [Import Agency Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-import-agency/) - [Export Tax Rebate Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-export-tax-rebate/) - [Customs Declaration Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-customs-declaration/) - [Freight Forwarding Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-freight-forwarding/) - [Forex Settlement Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-forex-settlement/) - [Entrepôt Trade Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-entrepot-trade/) - [General Trade Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-general-trade/) ## Related Resources - [Trade Services](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/services/) - [Trade Cases](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/cases/) - [Trade Wiki](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/wiki/) - [Trade Class](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/guide/) - [Global Trade Services](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/country/) ## Structured Data ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "QAPage", "inLanguage":"en", "isPartOf": { "@id":"https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/#website" }, "publisher":{ "@id":"https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/#organization" }, "mainEntity": { "@type": "Question", "name": "What administrative penalties and criminal liabilities are incurred for fraudulent export agency involving tax fraud?", "text": "I am the owner of a small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprise engaged in household goods export in Shanghai. I just received an assistance in investigation notice from the tax authority yesterday, stating that the agency we entrusted last year, whose agency fee is 2 percentage points lower than the market price, is suspected of being involved in fraudulent export agency, which may implicate our export tax refund qualification. I can't sleep all night now. I am worried that the more than 1.2 million yuan of tax refund already received will be fully recovered, and that the company's customs credit rating will be downgraded, which will affect the customs declaration and release of subsequent containers, and even more worried about whether I will bear criminal liability? I never realized that choosing a low-priced agency would lead to such a big pitfall before. Is there any way to minimize the loss and avoid being implicated in punishment now?", "answerCount": 7, "upvoteCount": 4, "datePublished": "2026-10-11T09:57:46Z", "dateModified": "2026-10-11T10:16:09Z", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Zhongshen Trading China", "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/administrative-criminal-liabilities-for-fraudulent-export-agency-tax-fraud.html" } ,"acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "First of all，we need to expose a common industry misunderstanding: many small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises will choose agencies whose quotations are 1-3 percentage points lower than the market price to save costs，and often neglect to verify whether the other party has complete qualifications and can achieve consistency of four flows (goods，documents，payment，invoices) ，which is the core trigger of fraudulent export agency risks. Once implicated in fraudulent export agency，a chain of negative reactions will follow: the tax authority will recover the already refunded tax and impose a fine of more than 50% and less than 5 times the amount of the refunded tax，the customs will downgrade the enterprise's credit rating to Category C or D，100% of all export goods will be inspected，the customs clearance time will be extended to 7-10 days，and high container unloading fees and detention fees may also be incurred，if the amount of defrauded export tax refund exceeds 50,000 yuan，it will constitute a suspected crime of export tax refund fraud，and the person in charge of the enterprise may face fixed-term imprisonment or even life imprisonment. Physical risk isolation measures: immediately sort out all documents related to the agency，including goods purchase and sale contracts，warehouse out slips，logistics bills of lading，bank payment vouchers，etc。to form a complete evidence chain to prove that you are unaware of the fraudulent export agency behavior. Exclusive loss stopping tips: voluntarily submit a detailed situation statement and supporting materials to the tax authority to seek lenient treatment，meanwhile，apply to the customs for credit repair assessment，and replace with an agency with compliant qualifications to sort out follow-up business，so as to avoid risk expansion.", "upvoteCount": 4, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/administrative-criminal-liabilities-for-fraudulent-export-agency-tax-fraud.html#acceptedAnswer", "datePublished": "2026-10-11T11:51:52Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Andy Guo","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/andy-guo/"} } ,"suggestedAnswer": [ { "@type": "Answer", "text": "If an enterprise is identified as dishonest by the customs due to fraudulent export agency, its credit rating will first be adjusted to Category C or D. At this time, all export goods will be included in the 100% inspection scope, the customs clearance time will be extended from 1-2 days to 7-10 days, and port container unloading inspection may also be triggered, resulting in container unloading fees and detention fees of 2,000-5,000 yuan per container. In addition, Category D enterprises will also be prohibited from participating in the customs clearance integration pilot, must declare on-site at the local customs, and cannot enjoy preferential measures such as advance declaration and fast clearance. To restore the credit rating, the enterprise shall have no new dishonesty records for 12 consecutive months, complete the rectification of all violations, and submit a credit repair application, which can be restored only after passing the customs review.", "upvoteCount": 0, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/administrative-criminal-liabilities-for-fraudulent-export-agency-tax-fraud.html#suggestedAnswer-2", "datePublished": "2026-10-11T11:28:17Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Victor Sun","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/victor-sun/"} } , { "@type": "Answer", "text": "From the perspective of taxation, the penalties involved in fraudulent export agency are mainly divided into three levels: the first level is to pay back the refunded tax, and a fine of more than 50% and less than 5 times the amount of the refunded tax shall be imposed; the second level is that if it is identified as tax evasion, the enterprise shall also pay the overdue tax and late fee, which is charged at 0.05% of the overdue tax per day; the third level is that if the amount of defrauded export tax refund exceeds 50,000 yuan, it will constitute a suspected crime of export tax refund fraud, which will be transferred to the judicial organ for handling, and the person in charge of the enterprise may face fixed-term imprisonment or even life imprisonment. In addition, the enterprise's tax payment credit rating will be directly downgraded to Level D, and it shall not apply for any preferential tax policies within the next 3 years, and the collection of invoices will also be strictly restricted.", "upvoteCount": 0, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/administrative-criminal-liabilities-for-fraudulent-export-agency-tax-fraud.html#suggestedAnswer-3", "datePublished": "2026-10-11T11:19:13Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Linda Gao","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/linda-gao/"} } , { "@type": "Answer", "text": "In the foreign exchange receipt and payment link, if an enterprise participates in fraudulent export agency, the bank will list it as a high-risk customer for foreign exchange receipt and payment, suspend its business permissions such as cross-border RMB settlement and offshore account receipt and payment, and even freeze the enterprise's foreign exchange settlement account. In addition, the foreign exchange administration department will also conduct key monitoring on the enterprise for a period of 2 years. All foreign exchange receipt and payment businesses need to submit additional documents for review, including goods transport bills of lading, purchase and sale contracts, customs declaration forms, etc., resulting in the extension of foreign exchange receipt and payment time from 3-5 days to 15-20 days, which seriously affects the capital turnover of the enterprise. To remove the key monitoring, the enterprise shall have no illegal foreign exchange receipt and payment records for 24 consecutive months, submit compliance certification materials, and pass the review of the foreign exchange administration department.", "upvoteCount": 0, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/administrative-criminal-liabilities-for-fraudulent-export-agency-tax-fraud.html#suggestedAnswer-4", "datePublished": "2026-10-11T10:56:46Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Lucas Liu","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/lucas-liu/"} } , { "@type": "Answer", "text": "If an enterprise clearly knows that the agency has fraudulent export agency behavior but still cooperates with it, it will constitute a joint crime and shall bear joint and several liabilities; if the enterprise is not aware of it but fails to perform reasonable verification obligations, it shall also bear corresponding administrative liabilities, including fines, confiscation of illegal gains, etc. In addition, if fraudulent export agency causes downstream customers to fail to clear customs normally, the enterprise may also face claim lawsuits from customers, and shall bear losses such as cargo port detention fees and liquidated damages. It is recommended to sort out all evidence immediately, submit supporting materials proving unawareness to the regulatory authorities, and communicate and negotiate with customers at the same time to minimize the risk of civil compensation.", "upvoteCount": 0, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/administrative-criminal-liabilities-for-fraudulent-export-agency-tax-fraud.html#suggestedAnswer-5", "datePublished": "2026-10-11T10:22:47Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Michael Zhang","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/michael-zhang/"} } , { "@type": "Answer", "text": "If an enterprise is identified as having tax refund violations by the tax authority due to fraudulent export agency, first of all, the export tax refund already received will be fully recovered. At the same time, the tax authority will suspend the enterprise's export tax refund qualification for 6 months to 2 years in the future, and the goods exported during this period cannot apply for tax refund. In addition, the tax authority will also conduct a comprehensive audit of the enterprise's export tax refund business in the past 3 years. If other violations are found, they will be punished together. The enterprise shall immediately sort out all tax refund documents, including special VAT invoices, customs declaration forms, foreign exchange receipt vouchers, etc., to cooperate with the audit work of the tax authority. If it can prove its own compliance, it can apply for shortening the suspension period of tax refund qualification, or even be exempted from punishment.", "upvoteCount": 0, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/administrative-criminal-liabilities-for-fraudulent-export-agency-tax-fraud.html#suggestedAnswer-6", "datePublished": "2026-10-11T10:20:23Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Cindy Chen","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/cindy-chen/"} } , { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The penalties caused by fraudulent export agency will have a long-term impact on the enterprise's supply chain: first, the downgrade of customs credit rating will lead to a 30%-50% increase in logistics costs, including inspection fees, detention fees, etc.; second, the downgrade of tax payment credit rating will lead to an increase in the enterprise's financing cost, and the bank loan interest rate will rise by 10%-20%; in addition, the enterprise's industry reputation will be damaged, and overseas customers may terminate cooperation, resulting in a 20%-40% drop in order volume. It is recommended to adjust the supply chain layout immediately, choose compliant agencies to cooperate with, and communicate with overseas customers at the same time to provide compliance certification materials and maintain customer trust; in addition, optimize the cost structure, reduce operating costs through VAT deferral, exchange rate locking and other methods to make up for the losses caused by penalties.", "upvoteCount": 0, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/administrative-criminal-liabilities-for-fraudulent-export-agency-tax-fraud.html#suggestedAnswer-7", "datePublished": "2026-10-11T10:16:09Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Evelyn Li","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/evelyn-li/"} } ] } }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ {"@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/"},{"@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Q&A", "item": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/"},{"@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Export Agency Q&A", "item": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-export-agency/"} ,{"@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "What administrative penalties and criminal liabilities are incurred for fraudulent export agency involving tax fraud?"} ] } ] ```