Force majeure for tax obligations of business entities

Abstract

The article focuses on the analysis of the legislation of Ukraine regarding the exemption from liability of taxpayers, in particular, the application of the legislation on force majeure (circumstance of insuperable force) to relations arising in the field of tax and fee administration, the rights of taxpayers, and on alternative mechanisms of exemption from responsibility for violations of tax legislation, which appeared in connection with the establishment of quarantine and the introduction of restrictive anti-epidemic measures, and the introduction of the legal regime of martial law. The relevant problem of Ukrainian business entities was taken as an example, namely, receiving of tax notices-decisions on the application of fines for violation of the deadlines, defined by Article 201 of the Tax Code of Ukraine, for registration of tax invoices, calculations of adjustments to tax invoices in the Unified Register of tax invoices.The position of the State Tax Service of Ukraine regarding the exemption from liability of taxpayers was studied and also was considered its transformation during the legal regime of martial law. An analysis of the relevant judicial practice regarding the responsibility of taxpayers for violation of the deadlines for registration of tax invoices was carried out, were found court decisions in support of the position of the State Tax Service of Ukraine and in favor of the taxpayer.Readers’ attention is drawn to the existence of a legal conflict between «quarantine» legislation and «martial» legislation. Commonly accepted forms of resolving conflicts of law are given (prevention, elimination and overcoming), a brief description of each principle of overcoming conflicts of law is given, as well as the opinion of the author regarding the choice of a principle for overcoming a conflict between clause 521 of subsection 10 of chapter XX of the Tax Code of Ukraine and clause 69 of subsection 10 of chapter XX of the Tax Code of Ukraine.The article ends with the author’s subjective recommendation to appeal to the court, in case of violation of the rights of taxpayers, and assumption of the possible outcome of such appeal is given.