New opportunity to close tax cases

Of Prokopi Hatzinikolaou

More than 2,500 applications have been submitted to the committee for out-of-court resolution of tax cases by taxpayers and businesses that had appealed to the administrative courts and the Council of State. In fact, due to the volume of cases, the financial staff decided to extend the commission’s operation, giving taxpayers the opportunity to submit an application until the end of December 2022.

As it follows from the new provision, taxpayers can submit an application to the committee both for the old tax cases for which the out-of-court settlement applications were rejected for formal reasons, and for cases that have become pending or will become pending before the S.t.E. . and regular administrative courts during the period from 1-1-2021 to 29 July 2022.

For these cases, the taxpayer can submit an application before the Commission for the out-of-court resolution of the tax dispute that has arisen from an act of tax or fines. The application must be submitted online no later than December 30, 2022. According to the law, taxpayers can make one or more of the following allegations in order to appeal to the extrajudicial dispute resolution committee:

– Prescription of the State’s right to impose the disputed tax, due to the expiry of the time within which the tax administration had the right to carry out the tax audit or assess the tax debt.

– Limitation of the State’s right to impose the disputed tax, due to receiving a tax certificate without reservation.

– Incorrect calculation of the tax, due to a manifest lack of tax liability or a numerical error.

– Retrospective application of the most favorable tax penalty.

– Reduction of additional tax, interest, surcharges and fines.

The committee, after checking the allegations, submits a proposal to the applicant, which, if accepted by the taxpayer and 30% of the main tax due is paid, results in the possibility of paying the balance in up to 24 installments with a reduction of the corresponding additional taxes, interest, surcharges and penalties.

The committee can recommend the full or partial acceptance or rejection of the request and, in any case, submits a specific positive or negative proposal to the applicant. If the applicant accepts the committee’s proposal within five working days, a relevant record of out-of-court settlement is prepared, which is published on the website of the Ministry of Finance.

The record irrevocably resolves the pending dispute and is not challenged by any legal remedy or means, as long as at least 30% of the main tax due is paid on the total amount resulting for the taxpayer, within five working days of its signature.

The remaining amount can be paid in installments with a reduction of the corresponding additional taxes, interest and penalties depending on its repayment. If the amount is paid in one installment, the percentage of the discount reaches 75%.

The supporting documents

In order for the application to be accepted, the corresponding supporting documents must be submitted electronically as they are otherwise rejected and re-submitted to the competent court:

– The Tax Authority’s issued accounting documents and the relevant audit reports,

– Any open appeal filed against them, with any decision issued on it or any evidence of its tacit rejection.

– All the documents of the previous stages of the case,

– Any court decisions, which have been issued up to that moment in the context of the relevant dispute,

– Evidence of the deadline for the pending appeal or instrument,

– Certificate from the Secretariat of the Court, in which the case is pending, stating its electronic address and confirming that the case has not been discussed. This certificate must be dated up to five (5) working days before the submission of the application,

– The power of attorney of the person submitting the lawyer application, which is provided by a private document with a certificate of the authenticity of the signature or by authorization through the Unified Digital Portal of the Public Administration (gov.gr). In the case of legal entities, the documents proving the legalization of their legal representative are additionally submitted.

– Scanned declaration of the accredited persons of article 2 for the correctness and accuracy of the declared personal data in the electronic system of the Commission with a certificate of the authenticity of the signature or through the Unified Digital Portal of the Public Administration (gov.gr). In the case of lawyers, a scanned copy of the lawyer’s ID is additionally required.

– The Commission’s electronic system allows the submission of additional documents to the application, until the date the case is charged to a Department.