How to correct adjusted tax information?

Tax authorities refuse to correct adjusted tax information in electronic databases of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine on the results of inspections (without taking tax notification-decision). The round table on October 7, 2015 at the Supreme Court of Ukraine dealt with the possible solutions for this issue concerning the appeal of actions of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.

Tax officials refer to the para. 14.1 of the Art. 14, para. 71.1 of the Art. 71, Art. 74, para. 78.4 of the Art. 78, para. 86.1 of the Art. 86 et al. of the Tax Code of Ukraine, legal regulations and local ordinances and do not make changes to these tax returns of taxpayers in the automated system of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.

The Art. 32 (parts 3 and 4) of the Constitution of Ukraine  states:

“Every citizen has the right to become familiar with information about oneself, which is not a state or other secrecy protected by law, from public authorities, local governments, institutions and organizations.
Everyone is guaranteed judicial protection of the right to refute false information about himself and members of his family and the right to demand removal of any information and the right to compensation for material and moral damage caused by collection, storage, use and dissemination of such false information.”.

Informational legislation in para. 3 part. 1 of the Art. 10 of the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information”  includes the right to accurate reproduction of information, such as: “to demand correction of inaccurate, incomplete, outdated information about jneself, the destruction of personal information, the collection, use or storage which are in violation of the law”. Such requirements are general in their scope. Therefore, the lack of tax legal provosions on special procedure of stipulated by the Constitution false information correction should not be a ground for refusing to implement it.

The expert of the Centre of Policy and Legal Reform Anna Barikova is enclined to believe: “the information contained in the information system of the Ministry of income and fees Ukraine “Tax Unit” refers to public information because it is the information available to the authorities (tax authorities)”.

Thus, the roundtable participants agreed that:

—  provisions of the Law of Ukraine ”On Access to Public Information” are to be complied with as they apply to legal relations in the correction of false tax information;

—  if there are appropriate grounds, specific legal regime for a restricted information should be taken into account;

—  it is necessary to justify which rights and interests of taxpayers ware broken within the relationship with the tax authority.

Prospects of judicial practice formation on the mechanism of adjusted tax information correction depend on the judges of the Supreme Court of Ukraine. They should formulate a position, for example, in the form of resolution of the Plenum, explanations, decisions in the case or in any other form, after discussions with representatives of legal science and practice.