Zasady pragmatyzmu w postępowaniu podatkowym

Abstract

The article refers to one of the changes included in the Tax Ordinance Project prepared in 2017 by the General Tax Law Codification Commission, which introduced the so-called principle of pragmatism into the group of general principles of Polish tax proceedings. This principle, previously unknown in Polish tax proceedings, provided for the possibility not to initiate or to discontinue initiated tax proceedings if they concerned cases which did not fall within the "triviality limit", set at PLN 50. The study points out that it is necessary to take into account the needs of fiscal penal law when introducing the discussed principle into tax proceedings, considering its subsidiarity in relation to tax law and, more broadly, financial law and the ways it is understood in the Polish doctrine of criminal law. The authors conclude that the proposed principle of pragmatism in tax proceedings is an institution identical to the principle of opportunism in criminal proceedings, although it has more specific statutory prerequisites for its application than its criminal law prototype. They also indicate the necessary de lege ferenda actions in the field of prerequisites for prosecuting criminal offences, should the principle be codified.