Deletion from the list of tax cases pending before the Committee for the out-of-court settlement of disputes – Amendment of Article 16(6) and (7) of Law 4714/2020

1. Article 16(6) of Law 4714/2020 (GG I 148) on the Committee for the Extrajudicial Settlement of Tax Disputes makes the following amendments: a) in the second subparagraph, the words "and brought back by the Secretariat of the Committees to the competent Court without drawing up a record" are deleted; b) in the third subparagraph, the words "and the case is removed from the list by an act of the President of the Court" are added and paragraph 6 reads as follows:

‘6. The examination of requests for out-of-court resolution shall be completed by 31 October 2024 at the latest and the minutes of out-of-court resolution shall be issued by 31 December 2024, the date on which the term of office of the Chief Executive, the members of the Chambers of the Commission and the Secretaries shall end. Applications not examined by 31 October 2024 are deemed to have been implicitly rejected. As long as the case is pending before the Committees, the proceedings before the Council of State or the competent ordinary administrative court are suspended and the case is removed from the list by an act of the President of the court. Suspension shall not extend to interim judicial protection.’;

2. Article 16(7) of Law 4714/2020 is amended as follows: a) in the seventeenth subparagraph, the words aa) "or in the event of an implied rejection of the application due to the non-existence of the time limit laid down in paragraph 6" are added and ab) "at the request of any of the parties", b) an eighteenth subparagraph is added and paragraph 7 is worded as follows:

‘7. The Commission verifies the allegations on the basis of the case-law and established practice of the Tax Administration. It may propose that the application be accepted or rejected in whole or in part and shall, in any case, submit a specific proposal to the applicant indicating the amounts of the principal tax, surcharges, interest, surcharges and fines. Paragraph 8 shall apply to the payment of the amount of the settlement contained in the above proposal. The Commission’s proposal shall contain an adequate statement of reasons and shall be communicated to the applicant by the Secretariat of the Commission, in accordance with Article 5 of Law 4174/2013 (GG I 170). If the applicant accepts the Commission’s proposal within five (5) working days of its notification, a relevant out-of-court settlement report shall be drawn up, which shall be published on the website of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, subject to the provisions on the protection of personal data. Acceptance shall be confirmed by the signature of the proposal by the applicant. At the time of signature of the proposal, the applicant shall also select the desired number of doses. The number of instalments is the same, both for the payment of the main tax and for the payment of additional taxes, interest, surcharges and fines. The out-of-court settlement report shall be an enforceable title within the meaning of Article 45 of Law 4174/2013 (GG I 170) and the amount indicated therein shall be established as public revenue, while the initial establishment shall be deleted. The deletion of the initial certificate shall entail the suspension of the limitation period of the initial certificate until full payment of the debt resulting from the record. The above minutes, notified to the applicant by the Secretariat of the Commission, irrevocably resolve the pending dispute and are not challenged by any legal action or means, provided that at least thirty percent of the total amount obtained for the taxpayer is paid (30%) the principal tax due or a rate of twenty-five per cent (25%) in the case of independent fines, within ten (10) working days from its notification and the payment of this total is legally separated, in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 8. Amounts paid in respect of the principal tax or the autonomous fine shall be taken into account when determining the rate of thirty per cent (30%) or twenty-five per cent (25%) respectively. If the conditions of the previous subparagraphs are not complied with, and if two (2) consecutive monthly instalments are not paid or the payment of the last two (2) instalments for the corresponding period is delayed, the settlement shall be retrospectively reversed, amounts paid shall be deemed never to have occurred and amounts shall be deemed to have been paid against the debt of the original title, which shall be re-established as public revenue. If the applicant does not accept the committee’s proposal, a record of the cancellation of the out-of-court settlement shall be drawn up. The record of the out-of-court settlement or the record of its cancellation shall be immediately notified, by the secretariat of the committees, to the court in which the case is pending. Upon notification of the report of the out-of-court settlement, the case is automatically closed by an act of the president of the court. If the applicant does not accept the committee’s proposal and draws up a record of the cancellation of the out-of-court settlement or if the application is tacitly rejected because the time limit laid down in paragraph 6 has expired, the suspended proceedings shall continue at the request of any of the parties. An order of the President of the court appointing a hearing shall be issued for the continuation of the proceedings, which shall be notified by the applicant to the opposing party at least 60 days before the hearing.’