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Tax authorities cannot make findings of fact inconsistent with the accounting records |
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unless they have established that the records are inaccurate or
unreliable on the basis of an examination report – this was the
judgment of the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw (Wojewódzki
Sąd Administracyjny) on 23 November 2006 (case ref. III SA/Wa 3078/06).
In this case the Court annulled a decision by the Director of the Tax Chamber (Izba Skarbowa) and concurred with the Taxpayer’s submissions.
It should be emphasised that the annulment, and the accompanying
reasons, were the result of instructions contained in a prior quashing
order from the Supreme Administrative Court (issued following the
Taxpayer’s appeal against the earlier adverse judgment of the
Provincial Court and requiring the Provincial Court to re-examine the
case).
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The Court considered that the authorities had infringed article 193 of
the Tax Ordinances, which provide that information contained in the
accounting records should be "presumed correct”. In the opinion of the
panel of judges, the authorities were not entitled to attribute additional revenue to the Taxpayer without first
establishing – in the proper manner – that the accounting records were
incorrect.
The correct procedure for challenging records is an examination report, as stated at article 193 paragraph 6 of the
Tax Ordinances. Since the authorities had failed to challenge the
records in accordance with the requirements of the Ordinances,
they could not make findings inconsistent with the information they contained.
tresc |
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