On January 6 2011 the Administrative Court of Appeal rendered a decision on the need for an assessment notice from the Chamber of Commerce to indicate the procedure and time limit for an appeal. The decision follows a lower administrative court judgment of January 29 2009 which rejected a taxpayer's appeal against an assessment notice on the grounds that the three-month period in which the notice could legally be challenged had expired. On appeal, the taxpayer argued that the assessment notice's indication of the time limit for filing an appeal was misleading, and that in the absence of the correct indication, the limitation period should be suspended.
However, the appellate court confirmed the lower administrative court's reasoning on the admissibility of the request within the three-month period. It held that the Chamber of Commerce is under no legal or regulatory obligation to indicate the period in which its assessment notices may be challenged. If an assessment notice indicates an incorrect time limit, the onus is on the taxpayer to prove that this indication is misleading; no such proof had been adduced in this case.
For further information on this topic please contact Thierry Lesage or Alain Goebel at Arendt & Medernach by telephone (+352 40 787 81), fax (+352 40 780 4) or email ([email protected] or [email protected]).