When litigation becomes unavoidable
Where the tax authorities maintain their position following a formal tax claim, the matter may be brought before a judge for determination. What matters is not so much what the tax authorities are claiming as what is actually owed. Our firm is committed to upholding this distinction before the competent court in order to obtain the discharge or reduction of unjustified assessments.
Assess the prospects of success of litigation before any proceedings are initiated
Draft the mandatory prior formal tax claim
Bring proceedings before the competent court and draft all the submissions needed to defend your interests
Request the suspension of enforcement measures taken by the tax authorities
Challenge before the court a refusal to release you from joint and several tax liability
A defence built to persuade
Before bringing any proceedings, we analyse the legal and factual elements of your case and the applicable case law in order to identify the strongest legal grounds. This analysis enables us to assess your chances of success and to weigh up the financial stakes, the likely duration and the cost of the litigation. We advise you on whether to act, you decide.
We draft the originating application, setting out the facts, the legal grounds relied upon and the relief sought from the court. We select and organise the supporting documents needed to substantiate your arguments, in strict compliance with the procedural rules and time limits for appeal.
We follow the proceedings and respond to the arguments put forward by the tax authorities in their successive submissions. To support your defence, we draft the necessary pleadings, produce any additional supporting documents and may request any investigative measure suited to the nature of the dispute. At every stage, we deploy all the means at our disposal to defend your position effectively.
On receipt of the decision, we analyse its reasoning and operative part to check that it addresses the grounds raised. Depending on its outcome and scope, we assess with you whether to lodge an appeal or, where applicable, to appeal to the court of cassation.
For those who wish to defend their position despite the rejection of their formal tax claim
The art of tax litigation lies either in securing recognition that your claims are well founded on the basis of rules that the tax authorities have misapplied, or in constructing, in a blind spot of the case law and in the face of an imprecise rule, an argument capable of persuading the judge to develop the interpretation of that rule in a direction favourable to you.
