The Charter of Taxpayer’s Rights

Overview & Synopsis

The issue of taxpayer’s rights and their protection is of great axiological, political and economic importance. The assessment of the taxpayer’s rights and the state of their protection in Poland is negative and there is a need for urgent improvement in this respect. A mature and effective form of protection of the taxpayer’s rights in modern countries is the charter of taxpayer’s rights, i.e. a normative or declarative text that concisely defines the basic rights of taxpayers and measures to protect them, which correspond with obligations of tax authorities. The aim of the publication is to demonstrate the need, or even the necessity, to introduce a charter of taxpayer’s rights into the Polish tax system as a new instrument to protect taxpayer’s rights, and to present an original draft of the Act Charter of Taxpayer’s Rights. This goal determines the scope and layout of the publication. Chapter 1 presents taxpayer’s rights and their protection in historical and contemporary terms. Chapter 2 deals with the charter of taxpayer’s rights in contemporary tax systems. It describes the concept and functions of the charter, the charter as an international standard and its international models. Chapter 3 discusses the protection of taxpayer’s rights in Poland. The sources of the law in this area and the measures to protect the taxpayer’s rights are presented. The need to introduce the charter in Poland is discussed in Chapter 4, proving that numerous irregularities in the processes of enacting and applying tax law, which result in the violation of the taxpayer’s rights, are arguments strongly supporting the implementation of the proposed solution. Chapter 5 presents the draft Act Charter of Taxpayer’s Rights with justification.