You have been notified of a tax assessment or a penalty decision: what happens next?
Notification, time limits, the administrative appeal and the action before the administrative court
Once a tax assessment or a penalty decision issued by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) has been notified to you, the challenge procedure provided for by law begins, with successive stages and strict time limits. Missing a time limit may permanently deprive you of the possibility of challenging the act any further. For this reason, the first critical question is when the act is deemed to have been notified to you, since the time limit for challenging it runs from that moment.
The time of notification
As a rule, notification is made electronically, by posting the act to your account on the information system of the Tax Administration and sending a notice to the email address you have provided.
The act is deemed to have been lawfully notified once ten days have elapsed from its posting and the notice. If, however, you read the act before the ten days have elapsed, notification is deemed to have taken place at that time. In other words, the time limit starts to run ten days after the posting at the latest, regardless of whether you ever open the act. It is therefore essential that the email address you have provided is kept up to date and checked regularly.
Notification by registered letter is now made only by way of exception.
Stage one: the administrative appeal
The act is first challenged by way of a quasi-judicial administrative appeal (ενδικοφανής προσφυγή), which is examined by the Dispute Resolution Directorate (DRD) of the IAPR. Filing it is mandatory; an action brought directly before the court is inadmissible.
The administrative appeal must be filed within thirty days of notification of the act, or within sixty days if you reside abroad. These time limits are suspended from 1 to 31 August. If a time limit expires on a public holiday or a weekend, it is extended to the next working day.
The administrative appeal is filed electronically with the authority that issued the act. It must state the grounds on which the act is challenged and the documents on which those grounds are based. Indeed, many grounds that have not been raised in the administrative appeal cannot be admissibly raised before the administrative courts.
Stage two: the decision of the DRD
The DRD must issue a decision within one hundred and twenty days of the filing of the administrative appeal. This time limit is likewise suspended from 1 to 31 August. If it expires without a decision being issued, the administrative appeal is deemed to have been tacitly rejected.
Stage three: the action before the administrative court
Against the decision of the DRD or the tacit rejection of the appeal, you may bring an action before the competent administrative court. The action must be brought within thirty days of notification of the decision, or within ninety days if you reside abroad. The judgment of the administrative court does not always mark the end of the case. Depending on the amount in dispute and the court that delivered the judgment, an appeal may be lodged before the Administrative Court of Appeal or an application for cassation before the Council of State, subject to the conditions and within the time limits laid down by law. Where applicable, the appeal or the application for cassation may also be lodged by the Tax Administration.
If the time limits have already expired
If the time limits described above expire without action being taken, the act as a rule becomes final and the debt arising from it can no longer be challenged before the courts. This does not mean, however, that there is no way out. A way out may lie in applying to the Out-of-Court Debt Settlement Mechanism (Law 4738/2020), which allows debts owed to the State to be settled in up to 240 monthly instalments and, subject to conditions, to be partially written off.
Exceptions
The challenge procedure described above, namely the administrative appeal followed by an action before the administrative court, does not apply in every case.
In particular, disputes falling within the jurisdiction of the President of the Administrative Court of First Instance, such as those concerning the refusal to issue a tax clearance certificate, are brought directly before the administrative court. No administrative appeal lies in such disputes.
Nor can an administrative appeal be filed against acts of administrative enforcement for the collection of the debt, such as the individual notice of debt, the seizure report and the auction schedule. These acts are challenged by way of an objection (ανακοπή) before the administrative court. Likewise, no administrative appeal lies against acts that are not enforceable, such as the audit report and informative documents, nor against regulatory acts.
Finally, customs disputes fall outside the scope of this procedure, as they are not governed by the Code of Tax Procedure.
Articles 5, 7 and 72 of the Code of Tax Procedure (Law 5104/2024) and Articles 6, 66 and 217 of the Code of Administrative Court Procedure (Law 2717/1999).
The above is general information and does not constitute legal advice.
Angelos Ioannis Kladis Lawyer