Initiating criminal fiscal proceeding as the tax authorities’ method of suspending tax liabilities prescription period. Anticipating the Constitutional Tribunal Judgment

The aim of the article was to elaborate on the tax authorities’ practice of initiating criminal fiscal proceedings only for the purposes of suspension of tax liabilities prescription period. Despite the fact that legal literature has noticed and commented on the issue for several years, the problem has not yet been dealt with. In 2014 the Polish Ombudsman initiated legal proceeding in front of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal concerning this matter, however since then no binding judgment has been issued. The administrative courts remain helpless while facing the problem, while at the same time, within the competences they had been given, they try to react to the inappropriate exercise of the mechanism of prescription of tax liabilities. The legal situation of the taxpayers would strongly benefit if the Constitutional Tribunal judgment stated unconstitutionality of the legal authorities’ current practice. It is only to be hoped that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal will soon take into account the reasons of the weakest party of this public-private conflict of interest.