Today, November 10, the Second Senate of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine at the public part of the plenary session in the form of written proceedings deliberated the case upon the constitutional complaint of the Representation ANDRITZ HYDRO GmbH on the constitutionality of paragraph 120-1.1 of Article 120-1 of the Tax Code of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the Code).
During the plenary session, Judge-Rapporteur in the case Judge Vasyl Lemak presented the content of the constitutional complaint and the grounds for initiating the proceedings.
It was noted that the Representation appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to consider the compliance of the disputed provisions of the Code as amended by the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine on Stabilisation of Settlements on the Wholesale Electricity Market of Ukraine” dated November 9, 2017 No. 2198–VIII, which, in particular, determines the amount of fines for violation of the terms of registration of the tax invoice and/or calculation of adjustments in the Unified Register of Tax Invoices with Article 8.1, Article 41.4, Article 62.1 of the Constitution of Ukraine.
The petitioner argues that the penalties provided for in the contested provisions of the Code, which apply to cases of late registration of tax invoices, are clearly excessive and violate the rule of law, in particular, its components such as fairness, proportionality and commensuration.
In the opinion of the Representation, disproportionate penalties violate the constitutional right to property, and the disputed provisions are a manifestation of interference, in their opinion, in the peaceful possession of their own property.
The Judge-Rapporteur informed that in order to ensure a full and objective hearing, inquiries were sent, in particular, to the Legal Directorate of the Secretariat of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Uzhhorod National University, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University, the University of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, and the National Legal Adviser to the OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine.
After examining the case file in the public part of the plenary session, the Court proceeded to the in-camera part for a decision.
The public part of the plenary session is available on the Court's official website under the heading “Archive of video broadcasts of the sessions”.
