Gloss to the Judgment of the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Gdańsk of 3 November 2020, case no. I SA/Gd 316/20

Abstract

The purpose of writing this gloss was to weigh the important view of administrative courts regarding the understanding public interest condition for granting relief in the payment of tax liabilities. According to the court’s position, a defective calculation of the tax by a taxpayer, caused by the lack of clarity of the binding and changing tax law, may prove that this condition is fulfilled. Using the method of dogmatic analysis of legal provisions and examining the jurisprudence of administrative courts as well as the views of the doctrine, both arguments for the accepted understanding of the general public interest clause and certain related dangers were indicated. This is very important issue, because the indeterminacy of the condition of public interest should lead to its dynamic, changing understanding, and therefore also to discuss it in the doctrine and jurisprudence. This gloss also considers the issue of the possibility for the state to invoke the end of the time limit for the expiry of the right to receive tax overpayment refund which results from internal regulations, in situation where according to the treaty for the avoidance of double taxation the tax was undue. In this case, a negative answer was given, because such action seems to be inconsistent with the principles of international law.