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Customs did not get green light
14.04.2016
The Plenum of the Russian Supreme Court discussed a draft decree dedicated to customs law. The Supreme Court presumed credibility of the contract value and limited ungrounded and arbitrary adjustment of goods value by the customs. Partner of YUST Law Firm Maxim Rovinsky discussed with Kommersant-online whether the Supreme Court decree can improve legal discipline among customs officers and help declarants to protect their rights.
For the first time after unification of higher court instances the Supreme Court gives clarifications on the issues of tax disputes, and the background for adoption of this documents were formed long ago. “It was necessary to formalize the practice of interaction between national and supranational regulation of the customs field, including WTO and Customs Union law”, Maxim Rovinsky explained. The document states that in case of collision between national legislation and Customs Union law the latter is applied. However, the Supreme Court underlines that the provisions of Customs Union law putting the customs duty payer to a disadvantage cannot be applied retrospectively. According to the draft, detecting falsity of customs value or lack of proof thereof cannot in itself serve as a ground for adjusting customs value, but it allows for the customs office to make an additional inspection. In case of failure to eliminate uncertainty of the declared customs value the customs office is entitled to adjust it. “The Supreme Court mentions that during additional inspection the customs must provide to the declarant a real opportunity to eliminate uncertainty of the customs value declared. Currently this is rarely the case in practice” – Maxim Rovinsky complained. In his opinion, the draft decree proposed by the Supreme Court may in general “improve legal discipline among customs officers and lessen the load of the courts accordingly”.
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The Plenum of the Russian Supreme Court discussed a draft decree dedicated to customs law. The Supreme Court presumed credibility of the contract value and limited ungrounded and arbitrary adjustment of goods value by the customs. Partner of YUST Law Firm Maxim Rovinsky discussed with Kommersant-online whether the Supreme Court decree can improve legal discipline among customs officers and help declarants to protect their rights.For the first time after unification of higher court instances the Supreme Court gives clarifications on the issues of tax disputes, and the background for adoption of this documents were formed long ago. “It was necessary to formalize the practice of interaction between national and supranational regulation of the customs field, including WTO and Customs Union law”, Maxim Rovinsky explained. The document states that in case of collision between national legislation and Customs Union law the latter is applied. However, the Supreme Court underlines that the provisions of Customs Union law putting the customs duty payer to a disadvantage cannot be applied retrospectively. According to the draft, detecting falsity of customs value or lack of proof thereof cannot in itself serve as a ground for adjusting customs value, but it allows for the customs office to make an additional inspection. In case of failure to eliminate uncertainty of the declared customs value the customs office is entitled to adjust it. “The Supreme Court mentions that during additional inspection the customs must provide to the declarant a real opportunity to eliminate uncertainty of the customs value declared. Currently this is rarely the case in practice” – Maxim Rovinsky complained. In his opinion, the draft decree proposed by the Supreme Court may in general “improve legal discipline among customs officers and lessen the load of the courts accordingly”.
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