A novel plea concerning the territorial incompetence of tax auditors
Frenkel & Associés has raised an unprecedented issue concerning the territorial jurisdiction of the tax auditors of the departmental public finance services as defined in article 4 of the amended decree of 16 June 2009. These provisions allow for territorial jurisdiction to be extended in certain situations “when justified by the needs of users or by financial or functional issues“. In particular, the Firm maintains that the linkage of these more recent provisions with those of general application codified in II of Article 350 terdecies of Annex III to the General Tax Code limits the scope of what is commonly referred to as the tax administration’s “droit de suite”. The provisions of the 2009 decree must be seen as derogations from the principles previously laid down by the provisions of the aforementioned Article 350 terdecies and not as autonomous provisions that coexist without any link whatsoever with the general rules of the latter article. It cannot be accepted that there are two “general jurisdiction clauses” for agents of the departmental directorates operating in parallel.
In the light of these new provisions of 1° of Article 4 of the 2009 decree, which necessarily derogate from those codified in Article 350 terdecies of Schedule III to the CGI, Frenkel & Associés maintains that the extension of a departmental office’s territorial jurisdiction to audit a partnership established in another department can only concern documentary audits and not on-site audits.
Frenkel & Associés has raised an unprecedented issue concerning the territorial jurisdiction of the tax auditors of the departmental public finance services as defined in article 4 of the amended decree of 16 June 2009. These provisions allow for territorial jurisdiction to be extended in certain situations “when justified by the needs of users or by financial or functional issues“. In particular, the Firm maintains that the linkage of these more recent provisions with those of general application codified in II of Article 350 terdecies of Annex III to the General Tax Code limits the scope of what is commonly referred to as the tax administration’s “droit de suite”. The provisions of the 2009 decree must be seen as derogations from the principles previously laid down by the provisions of the aforementioned Article 350 terdecies and not as autonomous provisions that coexist without any link whatsoever with the general rules of the latter article. It cannot be accepted that there are two “general jurisdiction clauses” for agents of the departmental directorates operating in parallel.
In the light of these new provisions of 1° of Article 4 of the 2009 decree, which necessarily derogate from those codified in Article 350 terdecies of Schedule III to the CGI, Frenkel & Associés maintains that the extension of a departmental office’s territorial jurisdiction to audit a partnership established in another department can only concern documentary audits and not on-site audits.