Zawieszenie biegu przedawnienia zobowiązania podatkowego z uwagi na wszczęcie postępowania karnoskarbowego w świetle najnowszego orzecznictwa sądów administracyjnych

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the most recent judgments of administrative courts concerning Article 70(6)(1) of the Tax Ordinance Act in order to determine how they will affect the application of this provision. It provides for the possibility to suspend the commencement of the limitation period of a tax obligation or to suspend it, if it has already commenced, on the day of commencement of the proceedings in the case of a revenue offence or a revenue petty offence of which the taxpayer was notified, if the suspicion of an offence or petty offence is associated with failure to perform the obligation. This article also faces a threat that its application might be abused by the tax administration. For this reason, in recent years, administrative courts have issued a number of rulings limiting the tax authorities’ right to use this provision. The author analyses their theses using the research method of an analysis of the law in force, referring at the same time to the opinions of legal scholars and commentators on the institution analysed and also to some extent to statistical data on its application. However, in the author’s opinion, the analysis does not show that these rulings eliminate the risk of abuse of this institution. Therefore, the author postulates that the legislator should intervene in order to repeal the provision which creates room for infringement of basic taxpayers’ rights.

Keywords

• suspension of limitation period
• tax obligation
• criminal proceedings
• administrative court
• Tax Ordinance Act