Frenkel & Associés obtains the withdrawal of the tax authorities from the rarely-judged issue of notification of procedural documents to joint and several debtors
In the context of a reassesment procedure concerning registration duties on the transfer of company shares, the tax authorities had served the procedural documents on the transferee company but not on the transferor (whose registered office was in Hong Kong). Frenkel & Associés, relying on the case law of the French Cour de cassation, brought an action against the tax authorities, claiming that they had failed to observe the duty of fairness in the proceedings, which requires them to notify all persons who may be subject to proceedings the procedural documents concerning them. The tax authorities, which had repeatedly refuted this argument until the rejection of the claim, citing in particular the fact that the two companies belonged to the same group, ultimately granted discharge of the taxes in the course of the proceedings before the court.
In the context of a reassesment procedure concerning registration duties on the transfer of company shares, the tax authorities had served the procedural documents on the transferee company but not on the transferor (whose registered office was in Hong Kong). Frenkel & Associés, relying on the case law of the French Cour de cassation, brought an action against the tax authorities, claiming that they had failed to observe the duty of fairness in the proceedings, which requires them to notify all persons who may be subject to proceedings the procedural documents concerning them. The tax authorities, which had repeatedly refuted this argument until the rejection of the claim, citing in particular the fact that the two companies belonged to the same group, ultimately granted discharge of the taxes in the course of the proceedings before the court.