Ms. Yulia Yashenkova, an AstapovLawyers Associate in the working team of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, made three essential tax and fee administration propositions in the preparation of a draft Tax Code, two of which were included in the draft Code registered on September 21, 2010 and approved in the first reading on October 7, 2010.

These propositions deal with the matter of challenging tax decision notices and are intended to ensure the protection of taxpayer's rights in the course of challenging proceedings.

The standard formula suggested by our lawyer makes unlawful any shifting of the burden of proof (in challenging proceedings) from a controlling authority, whose decision is being challenged, to a taxpayer.

Ms. Yulia Yashenkova also put forward a formula to clearly determine that any liability to the extent of the amount challenged in the claim of a taxpayer seeking to hold a controlling authority's decision invalid should be deemed agreed not until a judgment was made, but until that judgment coming into force. Therefore, appealing against a first-tier judgment prevents controlling authorities from charging penalties on liability as they do now abusing this practice.

For more information, please contact Elena Karchova, PR Director, AstapovLawyers: +38 (044) 490 70 01, pr@astapovlawyers.com