Tax disputes are an effective way to protect business rights in court against decisions or actions of the tax authorities.
For example, during audits, tax officials, due to their fiscal function, often try to determine the maximum additional tax assessments in the report. In this process, the evaluation of the business activity by the tax authorities may be based not on legal norms, but on internal regulations, assumptions, and conjectures. Moreover, the ambiguity of tax legislation leads to different interpretations of its content by taxpayers and tax authorities. As a result, in such situations, the court with the tax authorities is the only alternative to paying unjustified additional tax liabilities and penalties.
WinnerLex Law Firm – Your reliable lawyer in tax disputes. Each tax lawyer in our firm has years of experience in legal protection of businesses in various sectors and industries. We have repeatedly won tax disputes for our clients, freeing them from paying additional tax assessments, with amounts reaching hundreds of millions.
Tax attorneys at WinnerLex law firm have a positive track record in resolving tax disputes of various categories, including those concerning the recognition of illegality and cancellation of:
- tax notifications and decisions, regarding the reassessment of tax liabilities on VAT, corporate income tax, land tax, personal income tax, property tax, transport tax, etc.
- cancellation of orders for conducting tax audits (planned / unplanned);
- decisions on the refusal to register tax invoices; tax demands;
decisions on the seizure of taxpayers’ property; - tax notifications regarding refusal of budget VAT refunds;
- decisions on the cancellation of VAT payer registration;
- negative individual tax consultations.
In accordance with current legislation, tax disputes of legal entities in Kyiv, Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions are considered by the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk District Administrative Courts.
Also, appellate administrative courts located in Kyiv and Dnipro review the decisions of district administrative courts in the appellate process.
The permanent offices of our law company are located in Kyiv and Dnipro, in close proximity to the district, appellate administrative courts, and the Supreme Court. As a result, our tax dispute attorneys can more efficiently, promptly, and at lower costs represent the interests of businesses in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions in courts of all instances.
Practice experience: 19 years
Specialization: litigation support, tax, customs and antitrust practices, agricultural law, IT and M&A
Practice experience: 21 years Specialization: support of economic, civil, labor and administrative disputes, energy
Practice experience: 11 years Specialization: tax, customs and corporate disputes, support of inspections, contractual activities
Practice experience: 6 years
Specialisation: business and civil law, tax and customs practice, corporate law, registration and reorganisation of business
Practice experience: 11 years Specialization: support of economic, civil, labor and administrative disputes, inspections
The taxpayer, first and foremost, has the right to assess whether there are grounds for conducting a tax audit (documents submitted by the tax inspectors) and prevent it if they believe there are insufficient grounds for the audit (Article 78 of the Tax Code of Ukraine). Therefore, before allowing the audit, it is advisable to check the referral, the order for conducting the audit, a copy of which the employees of the controlling authority are obliged to provide, and the identification of the officials. As for the referral, it must contain the details of the order and the reasons for conducting the audit. If you decide not to allow the employees to conduct the audit, they must draw up an act of denial and obtain your signature. This act should be prepared in your presence immediately after the refusal to allow the audit.
It is important to remember that according to paragraph 102.1 of Article 102 of the Tax Code of Ukraine, the controlling authority has the right to independently determine the amount of the taxpayer’s monetary obligations no later than 1095 days following the last day of the deadline for submitting the tax declaration, calculation, report, and/or the deadline for paying the monetary obligations assessed by the controlling authority, and if the tax declaration was submitted later, from the actual submission date. If the controlling authority does not determine the amount of monetary obligations within the specified period, the taxpayer is considered free from such obligations (including accrued penalties), and any dispute regarding such a declaration and/or tax notice cannot be considered in an administrative or judicial procedure. When the taxpayer submits an amended calculation to the tax declaration, the controlling authority has the right to determine the amount of tax liabilities for that tax declaration within 1095 days from the date of submitting the amended calculation.
In the case of not allowing the inspectors to conduct the audit, it is necessary to immediately prepare and submit an administrative lawsuit to the court to recognize the order to conduct the audit as unlawful and to annul it (to create a “dispute over rights”) in order to prevent the controlling authority from applying an administrative property seizure on the taxpayer’s assets.
The controlling authority has the right to conduct a scheduled audit of a business entity only if the entity is included in the audit plan for the respective year. The schedule of planned documentary audits for the current year must be published on the State Fiscal Service (SFS) website (in the “Plans and Reports” section) no later than December 25 of the year preceding the year of the audit (paragraph 77.1 of the Tax Code).
According to the current legislation, tax disputes are considered by administrative courts. At the taxpayer’s (plaintiff’s) discretion, the claim can be filed either with the administrative court at the location of the plaintiff (residence) or with the administrative court at the location of the defendant – the tax authority.
Thus, a claim against the tax authorities from companies based in Kyiv and Kyiv region are considered by the Kyiv District Administrative Court.
Tax disputes of businesses from Dnipro and Dnipropetrovsk region are considered by the Dnipropetrovsk District Administrative Court.
Tax attorneys of the law firm “WinnerLex” work in both Kyiv and Dnipro. This allows us to perform all procedural actions efficiently and promptly in the best interests of the client when tax disputes are being considered.
The court fee is the official fee set by the state for filing a tax-related lawsuit or in the case of other legal disputes.
The court fee for tax disputes is as follows:
For filing a property-related lawsuit (e.g., challenging a tax notice-decision):
- For a legal entity – 1.5% of the claim amount, but not less than 1 subsistence minimum for able-bodied citizens and not more than 10 subsistence minimum for able-bodied citizens (periodically changing value);
- For an individual or individual entrepreneur – 1% of the claim amount, but not less than 0.4 of the subsistence minimum for able-bodied citizens and not more than 5 subsistence minimum for able-bodied citizens (periodically changing value.
For filing a non-property-related lawsuit (e.g., challenging the tax authority’s decision to refuse registration of a tax invoice, declaring the tax authority’s inaction unlawful):
- For a legal entity – 1 subsistence minimum for able-bodied citizens (periodically changing value);
- For an individual or individual entrepreneur – 0.4 of the subsistence minimum for able-bodied citizens (periodically changing value).
Current legislation provides for the possibility of reimbursing court expenses at the expense of the losing party in court.
When satisfying a lawsuit against the tax authorities, the court simultaneously resolves the issue of reimbursing the company for the court fee for filing the lawsuit.
By contacting WinnerLex Law Firm, the company gains a real opportunity to recover the legal service costs if the lawsuit is successful.
Courts have repeatedly reimbursed our clients’ court expenses in full. The basis for this is transparent financial relations with the client – payment for our services is made via bank transfer based on the contract. In addition, we prepare the full package of necessary documents for the tax court to substantiate the client’s expenses.
The deadlines for filing a lawsuit against the tax authorities differ depending on the type of tax dispute that will be considered.
As a general rule, a lawsuit against the tax authorities can be filed within the following timeframes:
- Six months from the day the taxpayer found out or should have found out about the violation of their rights, freedoms, or interests;
- Three months from the day the taxpayer receives the decision regarding the results of their appeal on the actions, decisions, or omissions of the tax authority (if the taxpayer used the administrative appeal procedure).
For filing a lawsuit against the tax authorities regarding the recognition of tax notices as unlawful, as well as in cases of refusal to register tax invoices, the current legislation provides for different deadlines. More detailed information can be found on the pages of this website: “Appeal of Tax Audit Results” and “Unblocking Tax Invoices.”
After receiving the tax audit report describing the alleged violations, some businesses attempt to file a lawsuit against the tax authorities to challenge it.
However, when considering tax disputes, courts have long-established a legal position stating that the tax audit report itself cannot be challenged. Courts argue that the tax audit report is merely a document that serves as evidence of the detected violations. The conclusions stated in the report do not, by themselves, lead to negative consequences for the taxpayer. Therefore, if a lawsuit is filed to challenge the tax audit report as unlawful, the court will reject such a lawsuit.
At the same time, it is possible to initiate tax disputes to challenge tax notices or decisions issued based on the tax audit report.
