Decision of the head of the tax office - how to appeal against it?
In a situation where the taxpayer receives a decision from the head of the tax office which he does not agree with or which does not satisfy him, he has the right to appeal against it. What steps should be taken when the decision of the head of the tax office? By what deadlines to appeal? Where to put them? Check!
Decision of the head of the tax office - form of appeal
Pursuant to the applicable regulations, the taxpayer has the right to appeal against the decision issued by the head of the tax office within 14 days from the date of delivery of the decision issued by the authority (Article 223 paragraph 2 of the Tax Ordinance).
In the appeal, the taxpayer should:
- make objections against the decision,
- define the essence and scope of the request being the subject of the appeal,
- indicate the evidence justifying the request.
The competent authority to consider the taxpayer's appeal is the higher level tax authority. However, they are submitted through the tax authority that issued the decision. Such proceedings are to serve the purpose of maintaining the self-control procedure, which allows for the re-examination of the appeal before its submission to the supervisory authority. It is then possible for the authority of first instance to issue a repeated decision (Art. 226 par. 1 of the Ordinance), but in practice this solution rarely occurs. Most often, the case is transferred to the second instance authority within 14 days of receipt of the appeal. At the same time, the body of first instance, when transferring the case, is obliged to respond to the presented charges.
Appeal to the tax chamber
When the case is submitted to the second-instance body (tax chamber), it has two months to consider it, counting from the date of receipt of the appeal by the appeal body, pursuant to Art. 139 par. 3 of the Tax Code.
Before the expiry of the statutory deadlines, the appeal body states in the form of a decision:
- inadmissibility of the appeal,
- failure to meet the deadline for lodging an appeal,
- leaving the appeal without consideration, if it does not contain the taxpayer's discharges against the issued decision.
The above decisions of the authority of the 2nd installation are final.
Unsatisfactory decision of the second instance authority
Due to the fact that the tax proceedings are two-instance and the decision issued by the second-instance authority is final, the taxpayer cannot appeal again against the unsatisfactory decision.
The above does not mean, however, that he is left in a hopeless situation. It may take advantage of the solution of applying for the initiation of court and administrative proceedings. According to Art. 53 par. 1 of the Act on Proceedings Before Administrative Courts (hereinafter: UoPPSA), a taxpayer may lodge a complaint against the decision of the Tax Chamber within 30 days of its delivery. It should be emphasized that the taxpayer files a complaint through the authority whose action, inaction or excessive length of proceedings is the subject of the complaint (Art.54 par. 1 UoPPSA), because, as in the case of tax proceedings, also in the case of court and administrative proceedings, the so-called . organ self-control mode.
Thus, a taxpayer appealing against the decision of the tax chamber (second instance) lodges a complaint with the Provincial Administrative Court through the tax chamber.
One of the significant differences between waiting for a court judgment and issuing a decision by the Tax Chamber is the fact that, unlike tax proceedings, the court does not have a pre-imposed deadline within which it must resolve the case. Thus, the taxpayer's waiting for the judgment usually lasts much longer than in the case of tax proceedings.
At this point, it should be emphasized that, apart from the time limits, the difference in both these proceedings also covers the scope of review of the contested judgments. Tax authorities verify the compliance of the facts with the content of the law. On the other hand, administrative courts only check whether the already issued decision is lawful. The administrative court may not change the content of the decision, it may only revoke the tax decision in its entirety or uphold it.
In a situation where the ruling of the Provincial Administrative Court is still unsatisfactory for the taxpayer, the taxpayer may resort to an appeal, which is a cassation appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court in Warsaw.
