Patras’ Administrative Court of Appeals annuls income tax of almost €500.000,00 in total, including surcharges

By decision No. 37/2019, Patra’s Administrative Court of Appeals, acting on first and last instance, accepted a claim submitted by two entrepreneurs spouses and annulled the tax authority’s decision to impose on the claimants income tax of almost €500.000,00 in total, including surcharges, after having dismissed the books of the personal business of both the claimants as inaccurate and having calculated their net profits on a non-accounting basis, claiming violations of accepting false invoices.

The court found that the claimants, when conducting the transactions for which the invoices had been issued, had acted in good faith with regards to the identity of their counter-party and issuer of the invoices under examination and, consequently, accepted the invoices in good faith, since they thought they were lawfully issued.  The fact that the issuer of the invoices either deceived, after conspiring with a third party, the recipient of the invoices who had no knowledge of the conspiracy, and presented himself to be the person who carried out the transactions instead of the third person who actually acted, or was the person who actually acted without respecting the tax obligations imposed on the issuer, could not have an adverse effect on the good faith recipient of lawful invoices for actual expenses, as in the case before the court, and could not have rendered said invoices unlawful.

It must be noted that the claimants had settled out-of-court the same dispute with regards to an earlier fining decision by the tax authority under Code of Accounting Books and Records (KVS), accepting a violation of receiving false -as to the identity of the issuer- invoices, however a settlement with regards to income tax had not been achieved with the tax authority.

Elias Golfinopoulos acted on behalf of the claimants.