On discretion in managing tax procedures

Abstract

The article aims to analyse the discretion given to tax authorities in managing tax procedures – to describe it and postulate how it should be regulated by law and exercised in practice. In the study, the dogmatic method was used; in particular, a case of discretion in initiating a customs and tax audit was studied. It is demonstrated that this type of discretion is vast and multiform; it is also only weakly determined by law. It manifests itself in, among other things, the authority to decide tax cases by taking account of the odds of winning the case before the court. Assessment of the odds may lead, and in fact often indeed leads, to a tax authority settling the case informally with a party to a proceeding (a taxpayer) instead of pursuing it in court. For the most part, discretion in managing tax procedures has escaped the attention of the Polish legislator. This discretion should be analysed by legal scholarship and subjected to legal regulation. This will make its exercise more transparent and controllable.