Thousands of Poles receive such letters. They are unlawful

The tax office has been sending behavioral letters to Poles for several weeks. The office does this when it has doubts as to whether the taxpayer is properly settling its liabilities, but there is insufficient evidence to initiate an inspection. According to lawyers, such action is illegal, reports Prawa.pl.

The tax office is scaring Poles with letters

Guidelines for sending behavioral letters were issued on December 11, 2023, under the previous government. The thing is that they have not been canceled so far, so the Tax Office is still guided by them.

Officials believe that its purpose is to provide service and support to the taxpayer in the performance of tax obligations, and behavioral letters are intended to be a manifestation of this. The Ministry of Finance admits that this type of correspondence is intended to encourage taxpayers to voluntarily fulfill their tax obligations. The letters are intended to be informative only and do not oblige Poles to take any action.

In theory, the lists are intended to be addressed to people about whom the office has doubts but has no evidence or has obtained information that is not sufficient to initiate an inspection. In practice, they are awarded to, among others, entrepreneurs whose business has low profitability or people running unregistered business. Letters are also sent to people renting premises for which the tax office does not have data that would indicate settlement of taxes in this respect.

According to lawyers, this is an illegal action. Ph.D. Stefan Płażek points out that the catalog of patterns is open and in fact behavioral correspondence can be used for anyone. No specific factual basis is needed for this.

The provisions of the Tax Ordinance Code, generally in Chapters IV tax proceedings, V inspection activities and VI tax audit, clearly indicate in what situations which proceedings should be undertaken by the authority acting on the basis of applicable law. However, any behavior should be opposed when the actions of the tax authority are not supported by applicable regulations, as a result of which the taxpayer’s rights may be violated, and this is the case in every case when he becomes the addressee of a “behavioral letter”

– notes Przemysław Hinc, tax advisor and member of the management board at the PJH Doradztwo Gospodarcze law firm.

At the same time, the Ministry of Finance informs that the existing recommendations and procedures will be analyzed and assessed from the point of view of the currently presented opinions. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the Tax Office will have to withdraw from sending behavioral letters to Poles. However, for now, no one should be surprised if such a letter appears in their mailbox.