Tax and Legal News – January 2024

So here we are in 2024. At this point, everyone is probably working at full speed, the holidays forgotten. Still, I’d like to wish you all the best of luck for the rest of the year. There were a lot of healthy people on the Titanic, and it didn’t make any difference to them. So, wishing you all-encompassing happiness in everything you touch.

And what would I wish specifically for all those involved in tax administration? As a citizen, and therefore a taxpayer, the two statements that have the greatest emotional response for me are “the resources are there” and “we’ll try to push it through courts”. The former is usually uttered by a person who had no part in the accumulation of the resources in question, the latter by a government authority. The first is not directly related to taxes, but indirectly, of course, it is. The second concerns taxes directly, and of course other areas. Here, the government doesn’t know whether or not it’s in the right, and wants to find out. Wanting to know is in itself a godly thing, curiosity is definitely a positive trait. It's just that the method is unfortunate in that the other side of the fact-finding process is a person for whom the whole thing can be, without exaggeration, a life-changing, unreservedly negative event. Few people come out of years of litigation in the same state as they went into it, and money is not the main impact, though it is far from insignificant.

And so my wish for everyone – taxpayers, tax administrators and anyone else affected by taxes – is predictable government behaviour. Perhaps not ideal and all-encompassing, everything has its flaws and loopholes, but when the tax aspect of a step is being considered, let it be reasonably known at all times how the government will approach it. Thus, for example, I perceive the methodological information on taxation of benefits and other compensation provided by employers to employees as positive. I don’t care if it’s conceptual or if it’s an insight into how to deal with a specific situation. But if the government decides to go in a certain direction and suspects ambiguity, let them know in advance. It’s up to the taxpayer to decide.

Once again, good luck for 2024. Make it your year.