The self-government of tax advisors urges the Supreme Administrative Court to condemn the abuse of fiscal penal proceedings

The National Council of Tax Advisors joined one of the proceedings concerning the abuse of fiscal penal proceedings, by submitting an opinion of the so-called friend of the court (amicus curiae). The self-government took the side of the taxpayer, pointing out in its letter to almost 600 court judgments from the last three years concerning cases in which fiscal penal proceedings were treated instrumentally (report on the abuse of fiscal penal proceedings available at: https://gww.pl/pl/publikacje/raport-instrumentalne-wszczynanie-postepowan-kar-2/).

COMMENTARY BY ANDRZEJ LADZIŃSKI, member of the Legal Committee for Cooperation with State Bodies of the National Chamber of Tax Advisors

"By submitting the amicus curiae opinion, we wanted to support the views of the Voivodship Administrative Court in Wrocław and shed light on the matter. Instrumental initiation of fiscal penal proceedings at the end of the tax limitation period is not a single phenomenon, but rather an excessively used one. This is confirmed by our observations conducted for several years. We would like to draw attention that the court should examine legitimacy of initiating such proceedings. And it is the tax authority, not the taxpayer, who should prove that the initiation of fiscal penal proceedings was justified. It should prove that there was a real suspicion that a crime had been committed and the actions taken aimed at identifying the perpetrator, finding witnesses and evidence of such an act, etc. We believe that a future judgment in this case will become an important precedent in adjudication and will contribute to the elimination of these reprehensible practices of the tax authorities."