Chief accountant Kristina Vorozhbitova about paying taxes “in the wrong place”

Chief accountant Kristina Vorozhbitova about paying taxes “in the wrong place”

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Vorozhbitova Krystyna

With regard to taxes and ERUs, the fiscal authorities have long and stubbornly insisted: “paying to the wrong account = non-payment”. Accordingly, in a situation where the payer transfers taxes / ERUs “in the wrong place”, penalties are applied for non-payment or late payment of obligations and a penalty is charged. All is not lost - if the payer appeals the decision of the tax authorities in court. Indeed, in this area there is a positive judicial practice, moreover, in relation to various taxes.

Penalties for violation of the terms of payment of the agreed amount of the monetary obligation, provided for in clause 126.1 of the TCU, are applied only in case of actual non-payment, or untimely payment of the monetary obligation. Therefore, in order to confirm the fact of non-payment of the agreed amount of the monetary obligation, it is necessary to establish that, within the time period specified by the legislation, the payer did not perform actions aimed at transferring the agreed obligation to the budget.

As the courts explain, making a mistake when transferring an agreed obligation to the budget within the time period established by law should still qualify as an action, albeit an erroneous one. And actions that do not contain signs of the payer's inaction when paying the agreed amount of the monetary obligation cannot be the basis for the application of negative consequences provided for by law (fines and penalties).

A mistake made by the payer does not indicate non-payment of the required amount of tax / ERUs within the period specified by law and does not cause any negative consequences for the relevant budget and the state as a whole. In other words, the erroneous indication of another current account is not a legal basis for a conclusion about non-payment of the required amount of tax / ERUs within the time period established by law.
Moreover, if later the payer independently identified this error and took appropriate measures to send funds to the proper account.