PUBLIC DECISIONS IN THE TAX LEGISLATION OF GEORGIA

Abstract

Ekaterine Shainidze 
 E-mail: ekaterine.shainidze@bsu.edu.ge 
 Doctor of Finance, Associate Professor, Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University 
 Batumi, Georgia 
 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3612-1790
 
 Abstract. According to the tax legislation of Georgia, informing taxpayers is one of the important elements in the tax administration system. On January 1, 2011, with the implementation of the new tax code in Georgia, a public decision was defined as one of the sources of providing information to the taxpayer. It is a decision on the norm of application of the tax legislation, which is issued by the Minister of Finance of Georgia based on the decision of the dispute review body or based on the analysis of the existing practice of taxation of taxpayers by the tax body. A public decision has binding legal force, therefore, regulatory and law enforcement authorities are not authorized to charge a person additional fees and/or sanctions if he acts in accordance with a public decision.
 The introduction of the public decision mechanism into the tax legislation of Georgia was supposed to be a measure to facilitate the timely fulfillment of tax obligations by taxpayers, however, until now only 7 such decisions have been adopted and published accordingly. In addition, the use of the mentioned lever for informing the payers did not happen until 2018.
 Published public decisions have regulated several issues of taxation, including: income from securities, forgiveness of loan obligations for individuals, operations related to crypto-assets, the right to use a leased asset, delivery of agricultural products produced in Georgia, the difference between the weight of goods at the port of unloading and the port of loading when importing grain, Rules of taxation of tourist services. It is important to note that the basis of public decision-making is the analysis of the existing practice, which determines the need to explain the tax norm more than it is conveyed by the tax code or subordinate normative acts.
 The annual reports of the Revenue Service do not reflect information about the effectiveness of using this important lever of tax administration - the mechanism of public decision. In addition, it is difficult to name arguments about the absence of the need to use this means of informing the payers more intensively.
 A significant part of tax disputes is partially satisfied complaints in favor of taxpayers, which indicates that there are many disputed legal norms in the tax legislation. In the conditions of a low tax culture in the country, insufficient protection of one of the fundamental rights of taxpayers - the right to receive information about the application of the tax legislation of Georgia - has a negative effect on the timely fulfillment of tax obligations. In the mentioned conditions, the active use of the public decision mechanism has an important role in ensuring the correct and unambiguous application of tax norms, both from the side of the payers and the tax authorities.