The case concerned the owner of a construction company who had issued fake invoices in 2007 and 2008. Greece’s Financial Crimes Unit (SDOE) uncovered the irregularities in 2013, but the local tax office failed to issue an assessment within the prescribed period. A second audit in 2019 reached the same conclusion, prompting the authorities to impose a new tax bill. The businessman appealed, arguing that the claim was time-barred.
The Council of State’s Second Chamber agreed, ruling that the five-year statute of limitations had expired and that no “supplementary evidence” had emerged to justify extending the deadline to ten years. The court stressed that all relevant information had been known to the authorities since 2013 and that internal miscommunication between different departments could not reset the clock.
“The tax administration is a single entity in the eyes of the taxpayer,” the judges wrote, rejecting arguments that poor coordination between regional offices could justify delays. “The state cannot invoke its own dysfunction to bypass the law.”
The ruling builds on a 2017 decision that set the five-year limit as a strict rule for tax claims, except in narrowly defined cases where new information surfaces later. Despite that precedent, a large share of the Council’s current caseload still involves disputes over expired tax assessments.
