Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.30925/zpfsr.40.1.13
RETROACTIVE APPLICATION OF THE RULES ON PIERCIN THE CORPORATE VEIL IN TAX MATTERS: AN ANALYSIS OF CROATIAN ADMINISTRATIVE AND JUDICIAL PRACTICE
Stjepan Gadžo
orcid.org/0000-0002-1905-5330
; University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law, Rijeka, Croatia
Nataša Žunić Kovačević
orcid.org/0000-0001-6923-5658
; University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
By virtue of the amendments to General Tax Act (GTA) in July 2012 Croatian tax law saw the introduction of the rules on the so-called ‘piercing the corporate veil’, pertaining to the possibility that tax authorities recover outstanding tax debt incurred by corporate taxpayers from their shareholders and directors. In the ensuing almost
seven-year practice, particularly puzzling issue concerned the retroactive application of relevant statutory rules, i.e. in relation to facts that occurred before their entry into force. The present paper contains an analysis of this particular issue, against the backdrop of pertinent administrative and judicial case-law. It is argued that neither High Administrative Court nor Constitutional Court came to the right decision in declaring the vexed practice of Croatian tax authorities as legal and constitutionally valid. In doing so, particular attention is drawn to the principle of legal certainty in tax matters.
Keywords
piercing the corporate veil; General Tax Act; abuse of law; tax guarantee; retroactivity; the right to fair trial
Hrčak ID:
219395
URI
Publication date:
8.4.2019.
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