Notifications aimed to interrupt the limitation period

Clarify your doubts by consulting your particular case

In Chapter 7 we referred to the limitation period of the Administration to check the tax status of the taxpayer and assessing the corresponding tax settlement.

As we saw, such rights of the prescription period shall lapse five years starting from the following day that on which the regulatory period ends for submitting the corresponding statement or self-assessment.

But relatively often, the Administration notifies the taxpayers the start of an inspection when the term of five years approaches. Such a practice is, of course, perfectly legal when the effective verification and investigation of the tax situation of the taxpayer is intended. However, in many cases, such notifications have an ultimate aim to interrupt the limitation period in order to keep open the possibility of investigating the situation of the taxpayer.

The courts have repeatedly expressed their distrust and suspicion. For example, there is a lack of interruptive virtuality in the notification of commencement of inspector proceedings without any mention of the content of such action, with a scheduled date on which it is communicated to the taxpayer that the proceedings will be suspended until further notice, resuming them when the limitation period has been produced.

Consequently, we must carefully analyse each case to determine whether the notification overturned by the Administration produces the intended interruptive effects of the prescription or not.