The mission of the Taxpayer Advocate

The Taxpayer Advocate protects the interests of the taxpayers in relation to the Tax Authorities.

He is authorized to investigate all the claims of the taxpayers which relate to issues with the tax administration, unreasonable administrative delays, errors of the tax officials, that have not been solved adequately upon submission by the taxpayer, failure to comply with the tax procedures or violation of tax procedures by the tax officials.

The authority of the Taxpayer Advocate

In performing his legal function the Taxpayer Advocate shall be mandated to:

• Require information and clarification from all the employees of the Tax Administration.
• Require the Regional Directorates of Taxes to identify the information and to review the complaints of the individual taxpayers or groups of taxpayers.
• Require the Functional Directorates at the GDT to review specific procedures of the tax administration.
• Recommend the improvement of the tax procedures and, if the case, also amendments to the tax legislation or the Code of Ethics of the Tax Administration.
• Refer special cases to the Tax Inspection Directorate or Tax Investigation Directorate, if the information or the documentation related to a concrete complaint from the taxpayer show that the respective case asks for an inspection process or tax administrative investigation to be initiated.
• Refer specific cases at the Internal Audit Directorate or Internal Investigation Directorate, if the information administered by the Taxpayer Advocate, repeatedly refers to the inadequate behaviors of the respective employees/inspectors or to the misuse of the procedures, systems and their official duty, thus demonstrating that the respective case asks for an internal audit or investigation to be undertaken for those employees of the Tax Administration or in the respective procedures and systems.
• Propose disciplinary measures for the employees, that based on the analysis of the cases reviewed by him, appear to not comply with the procedures or infringe them intentionally, despite that the responsibility to make such proposals belongs to the regional or functional directors of the General Directorate of Taxes.

The functions of the Taxpayer Advocate
The primary function of the Taxpayer Advocate is to:

• Ensure an efficient information
• Present in the respective administrative instances the problems and concerns of the taxpayers to comply with the respective tax liabilities and administrative procedures
• Ensure the compliance of the Tax Administration with the taxpayers’ rights.

The Taxpayer Advocate shall also have the following other functions:

• Identify, classify and righteously handle every complaint received by the taxpayers;
• Cooperate with the Taxpayers’ Service Directorate to promote the role of the Taxpayer Advocate while advocating for the taxpayers’ rights;
• Cooperate with the Internal Audit Directorate, HR Directorate and other Directorates of the General Directorate of Taxes in order to ensure that taxpayers are handled or will be handled in compliance with the legal provisions and that their rights will be protected and observed adequately by the Tax Administration employees, pursuant to the Code of Ethics;
• Correctly follow and handle every individual case, and close and archive them only after the complaints have been handled and solved pursuant to the tax legislation, provisions of the Code of Ethics and instructions issued for the implementation of the provisions of this Chapter;
• Cooperate with the Taxpayers’ Service Directorate, Trainings Directorate and HR Directorate in order to ensure non-reiteration of errors from the lessons learned by the specific cases in all the Regional Directorates of Taxes;
• Propose to the Deputy General Directors and Regional Coordinators of the General Directorate of Taxes administrative measures to be taken against the Tax Administration employees who have violated the provisions of the Code of Ethics;
• Refer special cases to the Internal Investigation Directorate or Criminal Investigation Directorate, if the information or documentation emerged demonstrate that such case asks for an administrative or criminal investigation to be initiated;