EVALUATION OF THE ROLE OF TAX COURTS IN RESOLVING TAX DISPUTES

Abstract

Tax is the most important, and continuous, source of funding for the state. Taxpayers are people who live in the community and enter the field of taxation. With tax, the state obtains some of the economic resources of individuals using compulsion and utilizes it to fulfill public needs. Since taxes are monetary payments, there may be disagreements from time to time between taxpayers and the tax authority who want to receive taxes. These disputes may be caused by tax errors, or may be due to the taxpayer's refusal to pay the tax debt or to comply with the financial and formal requirements of taxation. In the event of a dispute between taxpayers and the administration regarding taxation, it is expected that the dispute will be resolved and eliminated. There are two options for both sides to remedy the tax dispute. The parties can choose administrative solutions such as reconciliation, reduction in penalties, regret, redress, and corrections that satisfy tax errors, as well as to resolve the issue of dispute by litigation through the tax judiciary. The law offers the parties the right to choose between the two options of resolution. In other words, both the tax administration and taxpayers prefer peaceful solutions in the event of a tax dispute, and if a solution cannot be found by these means, they are not required to apply to the tax jurisdiction. If tax litigation is the preferred option of resolution, it is inevitable that both sides will face a number of judicial costs, and other cost elements if the issue of the tax dispute is moved to the tax jurisdiction. If the issue of dispute is moved to the tax judiciary, expenditure from the petition being written, the costs of filing the relevant litigation, lawyer and expert costs in the matter, time spent in awaiting a judicial decision and the possibility that the result will be for or against may result in extra costs on the parties. Nevertheless, if this path is preferred by the parties, generally the first judicial body to apply to is the "tax court", which is the court of first instance in tax disputes. In this study, using qualitative research techniques, the duties and functions of tax courts and their procedure were investigated while focusing on their role in resolving tax disputes.