Advised in a tax dispute

Our tax litigation team has advised a client in a tax dispute before the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania.

The case concerned the possibility of the State Tax Inspectorate submitting an appeal against the decision of the Commission on Tax Disputes. Since Lithuanian domestic legal acts provide that tax authorities do not have the right to appeal a decision of the Commission regarding its factual basis, the State Tax Inspectorate had tried to avoid this significant rule by arguing that the substance of the appeal is based on a different interpretation of the relevant legal provisions. Despite those arguments, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled in favour of our client and confirmed that the legal provisions, which are both based on substance over form principle, cannot be interpreted differently.