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Tax Procedures

Why this book?

Tax procedures comprise all actions for collecting taxes according to the law. The exercise of powers by tax authorities in relation to tax procedures is subject to review and judicial appeals to protect taxpayers’ rights.

This book supports a unitary study of tax procedures reflecting the links between their administrative and judicial phases. The comparative analysis reveals best practices and core principles shared by various countries. It also exposes inconsistencies, disparities and critical areas arising in the practice of tax procedures. This raises the question of the legitimacy of national procedural autonomy in tax matters across the European Union. The book puts forward a case for establishing a common framework for tax procedures that enhances those procedures in domestic and cross-border situations.

The book takes a systematic approach to analysing tax procedures. The three core parts of this important work consist of general reports, topical reports and national reports.

Highlights:

• Comprehensive analysis of all relevant tax procedure issues in light of comparative, international and EU law
• The result of a collaboration with renowned academics as part of a three-year project
• Interesting discussion of the legitimacy of national procedural autonomy and the case for a shared tax procedures framework

The purpose of this paper is to emphasise the importance of recognising the legal framework within which a cooperative compliance programme is to operate. This is done through the example of the Swedish cooperative compliance model, fordjupad dialog ("in-depth dialogue"), which has been described as somewhat of a failure by representatives from both academia and business. In this paper, the author points to certain legal issues that may explain why the Swedish cooperative compliance programme has not been a success. The focus is the principle of legality, laid down in Swedish constitutional law, which requires a legal basis in the law for public agency activities. The lack of legal basis has been a central part of the criticism concerning fordjupad dialog. The Swedish Tax Agency argues that there is a legal basis for fordjupad dialog, through the so-called service obligation provision in Section 6 of the Administrative Procedure Act of 2017. The author argues that, on the contrary, fordjupad dialog does not constitute a form of service under this Act. This conclusion is based on, inter alia, an analysis of the scope of the term "service". Therefore, fordjupad dialog lacks legal basis. Since it has not been possible to find another provision laid down in the law that may constitute such a legal basis, it is the author's conclusion that the constitutional principle of legality has not been met. Thus, the criticism concerning the fact that fordjupad dialog lacks legal basis still stands.

I syfte att motverka aggressiv skatteplanering har, under det senaste decenniet, arbetsmodeller baserade på OECD:s co-operative compliance införts i skatteförvaltningars verksamhet i flertalet länder världen över. År 2011 introducerades arbetsformen i Sverige av Skatteverket genom fördjupad samverkan, som sedan år 2014 går under benämningen fördjupad dialog.

I den här boken analyseras fördjupad dialog ur ett svenskt offentligrättsligt perspektiv. Inledningsvis görs en förvaltningsrättslig undersökning av hur fördjupad dialog kan kategoriseras - är det faktiskt handlande, ärendehandläggning eller myndighetsutövning? Därefter utreds om fördjupad dialog kan anses utgöra en del av den i förvaltningslagen lagstadgade serviceskyldigheten.

I bokens fortsatta del analyseras fördjupad dialog utifrån de för svenska förvaltningsmyndigheter grundläggande principerna legalitetsprincipen, likhetsprincipen och offentlighetsprincipen. Vad gäller legalitetsprincipen undersöks försjupad dialog i förhållande dels till dess föreskriftskrav och dels utifrån frågan om normgivnignskompetens. Undersökningen avseende likhetsprincipen omfattar frågan om fördjupad dialog innebär olikbehandling och om sådan olikbehandling kan anses sakligt motiverad. Vad gäller offentlighetsprincipen är fokus för analysen sekretesskyddet för de uppgifter som förekommer i fördjupad dialog.

This article deals with national legislation concerning tax confidentiality in terms of public access to information on individual taxpayers held by national tax authorities. It ends in a proposal for legislation – a requirement of damage, which is to be applied when individuals request tax information about other taxpayers held by the tax administration. In short, the requirement of damage is constructed so that, for confidentiality to apply, there must in the particular case be a likelihood of damage occurring upon disclosure. A tax confidentiality rule holding a requirement of damage thus provides neither total confidentiality nor full transparency. Instead, it provides a case-by-case balancing of interests – a damage assessment – to determine whether the requested information should be confidential or could be disclosed. This means that all of the requested information may be subject to possible disclosure, limiting the information decided beforehand to be confidential, thus widening the scope of transparency and the right to information. Tax confidentiality – or tax transparency – and the proposed requirement of damage are considered from different viewpoints, such as the principle of maximum disclosure, the scope of accessibility and the scope of accessible information. Furthermore, the article evaluates the proposal with the use of a theoretical framework holding three different benchmarks: tax compliance, administrative costs for the tax administration and taxpayer privacy. It is argued that a requirement of damage facilitates public access to information and thus should provide benefits in terms of the level of taxpayer compliance, but at the same time recognizes that full disclosure in every situation may not be appropriate due to, for instance, the interest of protecting taxpayer privacy.