Considerații asupra intrării în vigoare a legii material și procesual fiscale

Abstract

This study seeks to analyse some specific issues pertaining the mechanism of commencement of the material and procedural fiscal law, starting from some particularly influential special provisions contained in art. 4 of the Fiscal Code and art. 3 of the Fiscal Procedure Code respectively - provisions that have been rather neglected by the specialist literature.

The paper attempts to delineate the rules of the aforementioned legal provisions by discussing the applicability of the rule by which a project that modifies the Fiscal Code or the Fiscal Procedure Code must be promoted 6 months before it enters into force. The study also examines the adequacy of the subsequent rule by which any change or addition in the fiscal law takes effect starting with the 1st of January of the following year. At the same time, the legal force of the stipulations incurred by art. 4 of Fiscal Code and art. 3 of the Fiscal Procedure Code have been examined, and situations in which these norms may produce legal effect and also the circumstances that make them ineffective were identified. Lastly, these legal provisions have been closely looked at to determine if they incorporate the European principle of legitimate expectations.

In particular, a solution de lege lata has been offered, inspired by the comparative law, meant to stop the legal practice that has become extremely unstable due to a huge amount of unforeseen changes that take effect during the fiscal year, thus surprising the innocent tax payers unaware most of the time.