Section 126 - General disciplines related to penalty.

Minor breach penalty protection: penalties avoided for trivial, easily rectifiable errors and assessed only after hearing.

Officers shall not impose penalties for minor breaches or documentation errors that are easily rectifiable and made without fraudulent intent or gross negligence; a breach is minor if the tax involved is below the statutory threshold and an error is easily rectifiable when apparent on the face of the record. Penalties must be commensurate with the breach, cannot be imposed without an opportunity to be heard, must specify the nature of the breach and applicable provision, and may be mitigated by prior voluntary disclosure; fixed-sum or fixed-percentage penalties are excluded.