Evidence From Tax Books in Tax Proceedings – Gloss to the Judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of 19 January 1934, l. rej. 4663/31

Abstract

The judicature is replete with examples of administrative court rulings, the significance of which is legally significant. This is because they not only influenced subsequent lawmaking, but also set the direction of jurisprudence for a long time, beginning the formation of a new line of jurisprudence. On the centenary of the establishment of the Supreme Administrative Court (NTA), it is worth recalling one such judgment. On 19 January 1934, a panel of the NTA heard a case on the complaint of Emma Wehr against the decision of the Income Tax Appeal Board at the Bydgoszcz Tax Chamber, which concerned the assessment of income tax for the year 1927. In examining the taxpayer’s complaint, the NTA focused on the faulty conduct of the tax proceedings by the tax authorities, which had completely rejected evidence from the business books. Consequently, as the complete rejection of these books was inadmissible and to the detriment of the applicant, the NTA, on the basis of Article 84(3) of the Decree of the President of the Polish Republic on the Supreme Administrative Court, annulled the contested decision. In the judgment, the Court set out the requirements that a taxpayer’s business books should meet in order to constitute evidence in tax proceedings. The scope of these requirements and the relevance of the NTA’s views to current practice are analysed in this gloss.