THE COMPLEXITY OF AUTONOMOUS TAXATION IN THE TAX ARBITRATION JURISPRUDENCE OF THE CENTER FOR ADMINISTRATIVE ARBITRATION

Abstract

This research has the overall objective of analyzing the complexity of the Autonomous Taxation (hereinafter TA), in the context of the Portuguese tax system, through an approach to the tax arbitration case law of the Administrative Arbitration Center (hereinafter CAAD). The frequent litigation between taxpayers and the Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority (abbreviated as AT) about this additional tax justifies the relevance of this study. Based on the analysis of tax arbitration jurisprudence, more specifically of 443 CAAD cases, whose object of discussion corresponded to the TA issue, it was found that the litigation in arbitration courts is significant, resulting in an excessive level of tax litigation between taxpayers and the AT. Therefore, for the study in question, 93 arbitration decisions related to the tax complexity of the TA were selected, from which it was found that the existence of a high number of cases in CAAD is associated with a high amount spent on procedural costs, and that the costs related to cases about the TA and brought before CAAD are quite expensive, especially for taxpayers.