The SC says it: The tax authorities cannot enter your business.
The Supreme Court has recently ruled on a controversial issue involving an official public body such as the Treasury. In a recent ruling, the high court has said, for example, that the Treasury cannot enter homes or companies "to see what it finds"; or that, before setting the collection machinery in motion, it must first reply to the taxpayer.
Underlying many of these conflicts is the difficult balance between the powers of the administration to achieve its objectives and the protection of taxpayers' rights.
The battle brought by a bar in Cordoba, which considered the search of its business illegal, is the origin of the Supreme Court's October ruling that prevents the Treasury from entering a taxpayer's private or business address on mere suspicion ("hunch or presentiment") of fraud. https://2f3f2f7057c54c66d0ae3566c1dc9854.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html?n=0
In it, the high court forcefully rejects the entry into the homes of the administrators "on the basis of a judicial authorisation obtained without due motivation".
The ruling is an important endorsement of the inviolability of the home. As the ruling explains, it is not that the Supreme Court vetoes the entry of the Inspectorate, "but that the requests must be sufficiently motivated".
The Supreme Court has also put a stop to the AEAT's practice of enforcing the collection of tax debts without even replying to the taxpayer's appeal for reconsideration. In a May ruling, it criticised this conduct, stating that it is the Administration's duty to examine the taxpayer's appeal and respond expressly, and not by silence, before issuing an enforcement order that legitimises the collection of the tax debt with the resulting surcharges.
