On December 13, 2017, the Constitutional Court has passed a judgement, in which it stated the incompatibility with the Constitution of the provisions of the Act on local taxes and fees to the extent that they allowed to treat as a structure the objects that meet the definition of the building, which is connected with a higher tax, calculated upon the value and not the area of the facility.
The judgement has been issued as a result of a constitutional complaint concerning the breach of the Constitution by uniform and fixed interpretation of the provisions applied by both: tax authorities and administrational court. According to this interpretation, a facility could by qualified upon the tax law as a structure because of its functions despite the fact that it met all the conditions to be qualified as a building according to the legal act definition.
The Constitutional Tribunal has fairly indicated that such an interpretation is inadmissible because it is contrary to rules of logic and infringe the fundamental principles that ban the extending interpretation of tax provisions.
The consequence of the judgment is not only the discontinuation of use of the unconstitutional interpretation in the future, but also the possibility to claim reimbursement of the unfairly overpaid tax.