Scope of binding tax rulings issued by the Customs Authorities
TEAC resolution of May 22, 2014 which deals with binding effect of a reply issued by the Customs Authority at the request of a Chinese company that claimed to import goods and wondered about the appropriateness of applying anti-dumping duties. The Customs Administration issued a negative response, the Chinese company acted accordingly, but later, the Customs Authorities claimed these antidumping duties.
The Chinese company appealed before Economic Administrative Court, which decided in favour of Chinese society on the basis of Article 220.2.b) of the European Customs Code which is to say that the amount of duty legally owed will not be rectified as a consequence of an error of the customs authorities which could not reasonably be known to the debtor, provided that they acted in good faith and complied with the provisions in force concerning customs declaration.
However, the Director of the Department of Customs and Excise made an extraordinary appeal for unifying criteria before the Central Administrative Court which has been partially estimated based on the effects of binding tax rulings that shall be governed by the application of the European Customs Code. In this regard, Articles 11 and 12 of this Code provide that consultation before the customs authorities linked to them only in relation to tariff classification or on origin. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Court notes that even if the answer to a query is not binding, only would apply the payments of the unpaid duties if requirements of Article 220.2.b) of the Community Customs Code are not met by the importer.
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