On October 4, 2017, from 10-00 a.m. to 1-00 p.m., in the premises of the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine, a round table was held on the topic “Current problems of administrative law in tax disputes”. The event was held in the format of reports on specific topics.
At the meeting, the attention was focused on who should nevertheless act as a respondent in the disputes related to the refusal in the registration of tax bills, and what requirements the statements of claim should contain for effective protection of the violated right. In addition, it was noted that the provisions of by-laws adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine are not fully in line with the norms of the Tax Code of Ukraine, which regulate the issues of suspension of the registration of tax invoices.
The opinion was expressed (which is difficult to disagree) that the introduction of an automatic blocking of the tax bills, in fact, repeated the idea of unilateral termination of agreements “on the recognition of electronic documents”, which the fiscal authorities used for the refusal in the registration of the tax bills.
In addition, the aspect of proof in the administrative process was being discussed, including the use of prejudice. The matters about acceptable and proper evidences when considering the tax disputes have not been neglected. In particular, the issue of the admissibility in court proceedings of such evidence as the interrogation protocol of the director of the counterparty, which denies its involvement in the economic activities of the enterprise, was considered.
The particular emphasis was placed on the fact that the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as well as the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, take precedence over national legislation, and in resolving disputes, the national courts should use the conclusions and principles set forth in these sources of law.
Concerning transfer pricing, a brief review of court practice was made and statistics on disputes in this category of cases was voiced.
Thus, despite its short duration, the round table was rather rich in content, informative and useful for all participants, for which we would like to thank the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine, the Association of Tax Advisers, the National School of Judges of Ukraine, the All-Ukrainian Association of Administrative Judges and all speakers of the event.