The procedure for paying tax liabilities

We are finishing a series of articles on tax debt and in the last article we will talk about the procedure for paying tax liabilities.

Let's look at an example: you have a tax debt plus obligations to pay current taxes. You decide to pay your current taxes, and the fiscal authorities redirect this payment to pay off your tax debt. In this case, can you be fined for non-payment of current taxes?

The situation is unusual, the controllers can issue a fine, but there are no grounds for it. Let us explain in more detail.

If a taxpayer has a tax debt, the procedure for crediting funds will be different than usual. The taxpayer is prohibited from transferring money to repay a monetary obligation before the tax debt is repaid. The exceptions to this rule are the payment of the unified social contribution and the payment of salaries. It also does not matter what is stated in the payment order, the tax authorities are obliged to redirect such funds to repay the tax debt, taking into account the order of its occurrence. That is, all money transferred by the debtor (regardless of the direction of payment) must be redirected.

Often the situation is complicated by the fact that the taxpayer is not aware of the existence of a tax debt. In such a situation, the taxpayer pays current tax liabilities (as he or she thinks), and the controllers redirect this money to pay off the tax debt, and thus the taxpayer has a debt already on current liabilities. And the "vicious circle" starts all over again.

In such a situation, if there is a tax debt, there are grounds for imposing a fine under Article 126 of the TCU. This article provides for the imposition of penalties for late payment of agreed tax liabilities and does not take into account the grounds for such debts. In other words, the fiscal authorities are obliged to charge a fine, and its amount will depend on how much time has passed since the debt arose. In this situation, the amount of debt will only increase until the payer fully repays the debt.

This concludes our series of articles on tax debt. If you have any questions on this topic, please leave them in the comments and we will answer them.