Cyprus - Electronic Library of Tax Cases
Country Correspondent: Athina Stephanou
One of the needs identified for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of Cyprus Tax Department was the need to strengthen the Tax Department’s capacity to analyse and implement court decisions on tax matters.
Per article 59 of Fair Administration Law (a law that all government employees need to follow when exercising their discretion), the decisions of the Supreme Court need to be accepted and followed by the Administration. If the court annuls the decision of the Commissioner, the decision of the court applies to all taxpayers. If the court rejects the decision, then the decision of the court applies only to the applicant.
Knowing or being able to identify relevant legislation to the matter under examination, and /or knowing tax case decisions of the courts, assists the Administration in issuing quicker and correct decisions. A tax decision can also be used as a tool for persuading the taxpayer to accept the position of the Tax Department.
To assist the staff of the Tax Department, with the technical support of the Directorate General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) of the European Commission, a project is under progression with the following overall goal:
To assist CTD (Cyprus Tax Department) in the achievement of 1) Sustainable capacity in the CTD for continuous analysis and update of the e-library, (allowing multi-dimensional mapping and searching by various key words and references), of domestic tax court decisions with relevant links to the domestic tax court decision, to relevant EU legislative acts and relevant tax decisions of ECJ ( European Court of Justice); and 2) Enhanced capacity of the tax authorities to apply the relevant tax court decisions, both the domestic and European, in the area of taxation. Cyprus being a member country of the European Union needs to follow the EU legislative acts and tax decisions of ECJ.
The project is composed by the following deliverables:
Inception report;
Technical and functional specifications for the development of an e-library;
Collection and analysis of domestic tax decisions of Tax Tribunals, Administrative and Supreme Court with relevant links to the domestic tax case decision, relevant EU legislative acts and relevant decisions of ECJ (analysed with the use of MS Office Excel);
Train-the-trainers programme on the most relevant tax court decisions, both domestic and European; and
Final report.
The next step will be the request for tenders by the Department of Information Technology, on behalf of CTD for the build up of the electronic library. Data analyzed will be migrated to the electronic library.