Justice eases the taxpayer’s obligation to resort digitally
The high Court of Castilla y León believes that the delay of an electronic resource does not invalidate it and that providing it on time in paper gives rise to correct the error
The law requires certain groups, mainly companies, to interact electronically with the Public Administration. In a recent ruling, however, the Court of Justice of Castilla y León has just ruled that the timely delivery of an appeal in person that is later complemented by the required electronic delivery, even if it is already outside the official deadline to do so, should not invalidate the action, which opens the door for the taxpayer not to lose the opportunity to appeal some decisions of the treasury or other authorities if he forgets his obligation to do it digitally.
Law 39/2015 reinforced the obligation to relate electronically with the Administration to legal persons; entities without legal personality; liberal professionals, including notaries and property registrars; the representatives of any of these groups; public employees; and certain individuals or groups who are specifically required. From there, article 68.4 of the rule establishes that if any of them “submits their application in person, the Public Administrations will require the interested party to remedy it through their electronic submission”. The regulation then warns that “the date on which the request has been rectified” will be considered as an electronic filing date, not the one in which the face-to-face procedure was carried out at first.
This has been the reason for the litigation analyzed by the Castilian-Leonean high court. Its magistrates specifically addressed the pulse between the Board of said region and a private company on account of the demarcation of the land of a hill in which the Administration included “improperly,” says the company, a rustic farm owned by it, as the Liquidation of the Transfer of Patrimonial Taxes.
Given its disagreement with the official decision, the company filed an in-person appeal on November 9, 2017, the last day it could do so. On the 23rd of that month, the Board warned him that his brief should be submitted electronically, for which he had a 10-day term. Although the company did so, on December 1, the Administration concluded that since that last date was the one that should be taken as a reference to present the resource, it arrived 21 days outside the legal deadline to file it. The company then decided to appeal the decision judicially and the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León has proved it right.
“In said requirement, the interested party is informed that the date on which the remedy has been remedied will be considered as the date of appeal, but, one thing is that this is the date to be taken into account (for example, for the purposes of computation of the deadlines that the Administration has to resolve) and other than that a resource can be declared extemporaneous when the correction requirement has been fulfilled ”, the magistrates conclude in the ruling, assuming that if the affected party was given 10 days to correct their claim said period should be respected. In addition, “in the case before us the decision to declare the appeal filed inadmissible is contrary to the principle of legitimate trust,” adds the court, which recalls that the reinforced obligation to interact with the Administration electronically focuses on “the initiation of a procedure ”, while here the appeal to an official decision is addressed, not a new request.
Tax precedent
“The sentence is also applicable to tax procedures,” explains José María Salcedo, a partner of the Law Attic Law Firm, because Law 39/2015 is supplementary with respect to these. Thus, it considers that “the General Tax Law provides for the electronic filing of the economic-administrative claim (and it is also understood as the appeal for replacement), but does not establish the consequences for the event that the appeal is finally filed on paper. There it is where article 68.4 of Law 39/2015 would apply, and the resources would be considered filed on the date on which the appeal or claim is filed electronically. “
Therefore, he adds, “we are undoubtedly good news for taxpayers. And, although it is prudent and convenient to submit the writings electronically provided in the Law for certain companies and entities, it is good to know that if this is not possible, the Courts are making legal demands more flexible, “concludes the lawyer for Legal Attic.