Changes to the Fiscal Crime Code – will it be necessary to pay an extinguished tax?
The Ministry of Justice prepared a bill amending the fiscal crime regulations and other acts, which substantially amends the Fiscal Crime Code and some other laws. The bill is already past the stage of consultations.
The authors of the bill propose repealing §2 Art. 44 of the Fiscal Crime Code (FCC), which provides that a fiscal crime consisting of reduction of public imposts or exposing them to reduction is no longer penalized if the liability is extinguished by prescription. The regulation provides that if payment of a public impost is extinguished by prescription, no penalty can be imposed on the taxable person. This is a kind of guarantee for taxpayers that they will not be prosecuted for fiscal crimes of exposing public imposts to reduction or for reduction thereof if the state authority can no longer demand payment of the amount due because the tax liability has been extinguished.
If Art. 44 §2 of the Fiscal Crime Code is repealed, fiscal crime proceedings will still be possible after the prescription period. Therefore, there may be a situation where, despite extinction of a tax liability by prescription (under the tax law), fiscal crime proceedings can still be conducted. Repealing the regulations may also give rise to other doubts regarding the possibility of ruling on an obligation to pay a reduced public impost in a situation where the amount became barred by prescription under the tax law (but not under the new regulations of the fiscal crime code). In practice, there would be situations where courts could rule on the obligation to pay tax extinguished by prescription under the FCC.
You are welcome to contact our experts on criminal and tax law. We may assist you if you have doubts regarding a specific case, and when you are developing and putting in place a comprehensive procedure on risk management based on the FCC.
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