LEGAL PRESUMPTIONS IN TAX RELATIONS AS A WAY OF PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF THE TAX PAYER

Keywords: legal presumptions, presumption of innocence, presumption of legality of taxpayer's decisions, taxpayer's rights, right to defense, control bodies

Abstract

In the article, we investigated legal presumptions as ways of protecting the rights of taxpayers. In particular, such legal presumptions as the presumption of innocence of the taxpayer and the presumption of legality of the taxpayer's decisions were considered. The current norms of the Tax Code of Ukraine and draft laws regarding the establishment of these presumptions were analyzed. Summarizing, we note that we are convinced that the legislative consolidation of the presumption of innocence of the taxpayer in national law is only a matter of time and will become a legislative norm of the industry legislation in the near future. The components of the presumption of innocence in tax law may include the following elements: enshrining in the norm the right of presumption, which does not require proving by the taxpayer, that he is not guilty of committing a tax offense; such an assumption gives rise to legal consequences, in particular, the duty of proving the taxpayer's guilt in committing a specific tax offense rests with the tax authority. It was established that, unlike the presumption of innocence of the taxpayer, the presumption of legality of the taxpayer's decisions is already enshrined in legislation. Instead, in practice, the vast majority of controversial and ambiguous provisions of tax legislation are interpreted by controlling bodies with a fiscal bias. In order to overcome such a negative phenomenon, we propose to enshrine as a constituent element of the presumption of legality of the payer's decisions the provision that the burden of proving the falsity (lack of legal grounds) of the behavior chosen by the payer is placed by law on the controlling body. Since the current norm (Articles 4.1.4, 56.21 of the Tax Code of Ukraine) actually does not establish an unproven assumption about the legality of the taxpayer's decisions, but is about the possibility of making a decision both in favor of the taxpayer and in favor of the controlling body. Prospective areas of further research. Given the limited amount of research, in further research we suggest investigating the presumption of good faith of the taxpayer, the presumption of knowledge of the law, and others.

Published
2023-03-30
How to Cite
Сабадаш, Н. О. (2023). LEGAL PRESUMPTIONS IN TAX RELATIONS AS A WAY OF PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF THE TAX PAYER. Scientific Notes of Lviv University of Business and Law, (36), 84-90. Retrieved from https://nzlubp.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/705
Section
Articles