SFE Fines in Bolivia: What the SIN Can Charge You and How to Avoid It

Ask five Bolivian business owners what the SIN can fine them for, and you will get five different answers. The rules exist, but they are spread across Ley 2492 and a series of resolutions (RNDs), and few sources translate them for the person actually issuing invoices. This guide pulls the invoicing-related penalties into one place.

1. Where the fines come from

Article 162 of the Tax Code (Ley 2492) lets the SIN fine any breach of a “formal duty” between 50 and 5,000 UFV. The exact amount for each specific breach is set in the SIN’s classification of penalties, RND 10-0033-16 (Annex I) and its amendments. Two things to know before reading the numbers:

• Amounts are in UFV, not bolivianos. The UFV is adjusted with inflation and published by the Banco Central de Bolivia, so the same fine costs more in Bs every month.
• Many fines are higher for companies. The schedule distinguishes individuals, sole proprietorships and indivisible estates from personas jurídicas (companies), and the company rate is often double.

2. Not issuing an invoice: clausura

This is the most serious one. Under article 164, a business obliged to issue an invoice that does not do so can have its establishment closed (clausura). The closure runs from a minimum of 6 consecutive days up to a maximum of 48. The first offence gets the minimum, and each repeat is doubled, so in practice 6, 12, 24 and then 48 days. Fuel stations selling fuel without an invoice face definitive closure.

3. The fines that hit SFE users most

Amounts below are per the SIN schedule, in UFV. Where it matters, the first figure is for individuals and sole proprietorships, the second for companies.

Our earlier guides cover the mechanics behind several of these: contingency mode, invoice cancellation and credit and debit notes.

4. What a mistake can cost: an illustration

Take a company that confirms its RCV late every month for a year: 200 UFV per period, so 2,400 UFV over twelve periods. If it forgets to confirm at all, the schedule says 600 UFV per period, which is 7,200 UFV across a year. Add one stretch of offline invoices that never gets sent after the connection returns, at 3,000 UFV for a company, and a routine slip becomes a five-figure UFV problem. These are illustrations of how the schedule adds up, not a prediction of what the SIN will apply to you.

5. What can cut a fine in half

For some of these breaches, including unsent offline invoices and unregistered RCV information, the schedule allows a 50% reduction if you submit the missing information within 20 days of being notified that the SIN has opened the sanction procedure. The practical lesson is simple: open every notification from the SIN the day it arrives, and fix the underlying gap inside that window.

6. Seven habits that keep you off the list

This article is general information for Bolivian businesses, not tax, legal or financial advice. Amounts are the UFV figures published in the SIN’s classification of formal-duty penalties (RND 10-0033-16, Annex I, as amended) and can change; confirm the current text and how it applies to your business with your accountant or the SIN before acting.