In view of the resolutions of the Tax Agency, citizens may file a claim before the Economic-Administrative Courts without the need to hire a lawyer or attorney and free of charge.
According to the Association of Technicians of the Ministry of Finance, the resolutions of the aforementioned Autonomous Administrative Body can take up to four years to be resolved, so the damage of these delays affects the most modest taxpayer, whether or not he/she is finally found to be right, since, as long as his/her case is not resolved, he/she cannot go to the contentious administrative courts, creating a “bottleneck” to access the judicial system.
The main causes of these delays are due to two factors:
- Staff cuts (17.6% reduction in headcount between 2007 and 2014).
- Continued growth of claims since the beginning of the crisis (claims filed each year increased by 63.7% during the period 2007 to 2014), without missing the restrictive guidelines of the tax administrations vis-à-vis taxpayers’ allegations in these proceedings.
However, during 2014, up to 41.95% of the claims filed by taxpayers were fully or partially upheld (of the almost 290,000 procedures pending resolution, around 120,000 could be upheld), which confirms the restrictive nature of the application of the tax rule by the Tax Agency.
The deterioration of the public service provided by the Economic-Administrative Courts with staff cuts and saturation of procedures, is a frontal damage to the only free mechanism available to citizens to challenge tax acts harmful to their interests, but correcting this situation is not one of the priorities of the Treasury to ensure a fast and efficient service to citizens.”
