Property Tax Appeals: What the Dispute Is About
The property tax is an annual-duty tax, and the circle of its payers and taxable objects is precisely defined by tax legislation. The payer of property tax is a resident enterprise or organization — on assets recorded on its balance as fixed assets or investment property, on uninstalled equipment, on unfinished construction, and likewise on property leased out by it; as well as on immovable property received within measures securing performance of a contractual obligation, or acquired at auction, by direct sale or otherwise for the enforcement of a monetary obligation — including yachts, helicopters, aircraft and other means of transport.
A non-resident enterprise pays property tax on the same property located in Georgia, including property transferred on the basis of a lease, tenancy, usufruct or similar contract. A natural person is a payer on immovable property held in ownership, including unfinished construction, buildings or parts thereof, yachts, helicopters, aircraft, and light vehicles determined by code 8703 of the national commodity nomenclature of foreign-economic activity. In addition, the object of taxation is also property registered in the name of a deceased person that is in someone's possession or use. The purpose of the appeal is precisely to check the correctness of this circle and of the computation.
Starting the Tax Dispute and the 30-Day Period
A decision taken by a tax authority with respect to a person may be appealed to the dispute-review body in the manner established by the relevant chapter of the Tax Code. A person has the right to appeal a decision within 30 days of its delivery. This period is tied directly to the moment of delivery, which is why fixing the date of receipt of every document is decisive.
The expiry of the period does not close the road entirely: after the 30-day period, the commencement of a dispute is admissible on the basis of newly discovered or newly revealed circumstances or evidence. Newly discovered means a circumstance or evidence that the complainant did not know and could not have known, and whose timely submission would have led to a favorable decision. In addition, a dispute may be commenced where it is established that the appealed decision was not sent to the complainant — in that case the period is counted from the day the decision became known to the complainant.
Two practical details are also important: a complaint is, as a rule, submitted to the dispute-review body electronically, and the appeal of a decision does not suspend its operation. In other words, the obligation to pay the tax exists during the review of the complaint as well, and this circumstance must be taken into account in financial planning.
Admissibility Requirements for the Complaint
In preparing the complaint, attention is devoted to the procedural requirements that determine its acceptance for consideration. The dispute-review body will not accept a complaint where it lacks the identification or personal number of the complainant; the complainant's contact details; where the substance of the request cannot be discerned from the complaint; or where a copy of the appealed decision or of a document related to its issuance is not attached.
A complaint will likewise be rejected where its pages or the pages of attached documents are unnumbered, where it is illegible, is not composed in the state language of Georgia, or is unsigned. Where the complaint is submitted by a representative, a document confirming the representative authority must be attached. These requirements seem technical, but it is precisely their violation that most often leads to a complaint being left without consideration.
Consideration of the Complaint and the Decision Options
The dispute-review body considers a complaint within 20 days and only within the framework of the complainant's request. This last condition is particularly important: if the request concerns only a separate part of the computation, the decision will not change with respect to the remainder. The formulation of the request in the complaint must therefore be set out completely.
As a result of the consideration, the dispute-review body is competent to: satisfy the complaint; satisfy it partially; refuse satisfaction; leave it without consideration; or adopt an interim decision and suspend the consideration of the complaint. An interim decision is appealed together with the final decision. The decision is, as a rule, sent to the parties electronically.
Appealing the Decision: the Next Stage
Where the Revenue Service has taken a decision unfavorable to the complainant, the complainant has the right to appeal the decision within 20 days of its delivery to the Disputes Board or to a court. The decision of the Disputes Board may likewise be appealed to a court within 20 days of its delivery. Tax appeal thus has two stages, and each has its own period.
Two additional rules matter for observing the periods: submitting a complaint within the period established for appeal to a tax authority or any other state body counts as observing the appeal period, and the burden of proving the complainant's violation of the period lies on the tax authority. In other words, it is the authority, not the complainant, that must prove a violation of the period.
How to Plan a Property Tax Appeal
At the preparation stage a list is first drawn up of the materials against which the computation will be contested: the category of the taxable object, the correctness of its registration, and the conditions that determine the circle of payers. Then the delivery date is fixed and the 30-day period is counted, within which the complaint is submitted electronically in compliance with all procedural requirements. After the consideration, the question of continuing before the Disputes Board or the court is decided — with control of the 20-day periods. The specialists of Legal.ge will assist you in preparing a property tax appeal and in conducting it at every stage.