FBK Legal on Tax Mediation
Kutafin University Bulletin has published an article written by Alexander Grigoriev and Lana Arzumanova, a professor of the Moscow State Law University, about tax mediation.
The authors analyse the current situation with mediation, including tax mediation, share their suggestions on its promotion and explain how this procedure is applied to settle disputes in foreign countries.
The lawyers list such advantages of mediation as clarification of real interests and actual circumstances by parties, transparency and involvement of an impartial and independent third person ? a mediator ? who assists the parties in finding a viable solution tailored to meet the needs of both parties in order to settle a conflict.
This type of dispute resolution is a way to exercise taxpayers? and tax authorities? rights. The authors note that there are no evident obstacles to the application of mediation to tax relations, but it is still necessary to study foreign experience, given the gradual development of positive practices, Russian pilot projects and public discussion of tax authorities? positions together with scientists and practitioners.
The lawyers believe that in order to understand in which cases tax mediation is more applicable, it is necessary to have more practical cases but even now it is possible to determine general trends: there is an upsurge of interest in development of mediation where one of the parties is government represented by a government agency; tax mediation is not wide-spread; it is different from other types of mediation in terms of parties and a limited number of questions for dispute resolution.
It is crucial to continue studying that type of conflict settlement and its practical application by identifying interests of the tax authority and the taxpayer, which will help to establish healthy partnership relations between the parties.
