The Supreme Court has issued a resolution relevant for a debtor under enforcement procedure. The resolution has clarified the issue of VAT added to enforcement fees by court enforcement officers.
Generally, the issue of VAT charged on enforcement fees is as follows: a court enforcement officer is entitled to charge a debtor with the enforcement fee, being in fact his/her remuneration for the enforcement acts; in 2015 the Minister of Finance changed its interpretation of legal provisions and deemed court enforcement officers obliged to pay VAT.
The aforementioned change made court enforcement officers face a dilemma whether the enforcement fee charged upon a debtor should be increased with VAT, thus, should the debtor pay the tax added in 23% rate (and thus, VAT would have no effect upon the remuneration of court enforcement officers ), or should the enforcement fee charged upon a debtor be interpreted as inclusive of VAT, therefore, VAT should not affect the total amount of enforcement fee payable by a debtor (in this case a court enforcement officer would have to reduce his/her remuneration by VAT).
Obviously, court enforcement officers interpreted the regulation to their advantage and increased enforcement fees with VAT, thus, maintaining its burden was the burden of the debtor.
Meanwhile, in its resolution of 7 July 2016 (case No.: III CZP 34/16), the Supreme Court ruled that when calculating the costs of enforcement proceedings, a court enforcement officer could not increase the enforcement fee with VAT and thus, he/she could not charge VAT against the debtor’s assets of property.
A written justification of the above resolution has not yet been published.
Author: Lidia Wesołowska