Rozšířený senát NSS k otázce prekluzivní lhůty pro doměření daně

Extended Senate of the Supreme Administrative Court on the Statute of Limitations for Tax Assessment

The extended senate of the Supreme Administrative Court ("NSS") recently addressed the procedural impacts of the expiration of the so-called statute of limitations for tax assessment, which generally amounts to 10 years from the deadline for filing the regular tax return, in its decision under case no. 1 Afs 231/2022 - 44.

The NSS addressed, among others, the following questions in its decision:

1. When and how can tax be assessed if control procedures do not lead to a final tax assessment before the expiration of the 10-year statute of limitations?

• The NSS concluded that if the procedure to remove doubts (tax audit) does not achieve its goal within the period for tax assessment and does not end in the legally anticipated and desirable manner (i.e., a final tax assessment), the tax cannot be assessed to the taxpayer within the tax proceedings after the expiration of the statute of limitations.
• If control procedures are not completed within the specified period, they are considered as if they were never initiated.
• Compensation for any potential harm due to unfinished control procedures (for example, in situations where the taxpayer reported an excessive VAT deduction or claimed a lower tax in a supplementary tax return) can be sought by the taxpayer in general courts within civil proceedings, not within tax proceedings.

2. How to handle a supplementary tax return filed at the end of the objective statute of limitations (i.e., 10 years)?

• The answer to this question brought relatively surprising conclusion, based on which the above-mentioned statute of limitations (10 years) is extended if supplementary tax return for a lower tax is filed within the last 12 months before the expiration of this period. In such a case, the period is extended by 1 year.
• Tax authorities can conduct control procedures within this extended one-year period, which do not have to be limited only to the reasons that led the taxpayer to file the additional tax return.
• However, tax authorities are limited in terms of the amount of the claimed tax, i.e., the resulting tax assessed based on the filed additional return cannot be higher than the last known tax.

If you have any questions or are dealing with a similar situation, please contact the authors of the article or the EY team with whom you collaborate.

Authors:

Radek Matuštík

Miloš Málek

Jan Šulc