The company had issued a VAT return for the tax period 6/2018, in which the amount of VAT eligible for refund was declared as 111,395 euros. After this, in the first correction notice issued by the company, the amount of VAT eligible for refund was declared as 1,813,359 euros. The declared amount had not been returned to the company, but the Tax Administration had asked the company for additional clarification on the deductible VAT for the tax season. As an attachment to its response to the clarification request, the company had issued another correction notice, in which the amount of VAT eligible for refund was stated as 1,587,512 euros. With the second correction notice, the amount of tax entitled to a refund had been reduced by 225,847 euros compared to the first correction notice.
In the case, it had to be decided whether the company could have been ordered to pay a late payment based on the second VAT adjustment notice it had given, in a situation where the company had no actual VAT to pay, but was still entitled to a VAT refund.
The Supreme Administrative Court considered that, in particular, taking into account the requirement for precision regarding the provision of administrative penalties of a sanction nature, there was no basis for imposing a late fee on the company in accordance with Section 36, subsection 2 of the Act on the Taxation Procedure of Self-Initiated Taxes. The decisions of the Administrative Court, the Board of Adjustment for Taxation and the Tax Administration were annulled and the prescribed late fee was removed.
Act on the taxation procedure of self-initiated taxes Section 25 subsection 1, Section 35 subsection 1 and subsection 2 and Section 36 subsection 2
Finnish Constitution § 2 subsection 3, § 80 subsection 1 and § 81 subsection 1
Source: finlex.fi
