A fine from the Treasury is annulled because it was not motivated

The ruling of the TSJ of Murcia concludes that "the motivation offered is not capable of establishing guilt"

Failure to comply with a tax rule does not necessarily imply the guilt of the taxpayer and its sanction if it is not motivated, according to a ruling from the Superior Court of Justice of the Region of Murcia (TSJRM) that annuls a fine from the Tax Agency for the incorrect settlement of VAT.

The Litigation Chamber annuls the fine of 13,300 euros imposed on a businessman when the Agency considers that in its self-assessment for the value added tax for the four quarters of 2011 it did not pay what was due.

The Administrative Economic Court rejected his appeal, in which he alleged that the sanctioning file should be paralyzed until the claim he had made to the liquidation of the Treasury was resolved, so he then went to the TSJRM, which agreed with him by pointing out that the sanctioning resolution was not motivated.

The court says that "the motivation does not constitute a mere formal requirement, but from the internal point of view it ensures the formation of the will of the administration, constitutes a guarantee for the administrator and facilitates jurisdictional control."

And he adds that "in the case prosecuted the tax administration does not express what the facts constituting the infringement are nor does it materially incorporate the results of the verification actions carried out, to which a generic allusion is simply made."

The ruling concludes that "the motivation offered is not capable of establishing guilt, because the circumstances indicated are insufficient in themselves to infer malicious or culpable behavior and it is not possible to infer guilt from the mere non-compliance with the tax rule."

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