Suspendium ad Kalendas Graecas? The Problem of the Constitutionality of Suspending the Statute of Limitations for Fiscal Offences during the State of the Epidemic or the State of the Epidemic Threat as the Example of Broadly Understood ‘Fiscal Repression’ of the State against the Individual

Abstract

One of the basic principles defining the relationship between individuals (including entrepreneurs) and the state is the principle of protecting the citizen’s trust in the state and the law enacted by it. This principle is based on legal certainty, understood in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland as a certain set of features inherent in the law which ensure legal security for the individual; the individual then has the possibility of full knowledge of the reasons for the operation of state authorities and the legal consequences that his or her actions may entail. An individual should be able both to determine the consequences of behaviours and events on the basis of the legal status in force at a given moment, and to expect that the legislator will not change it arbitrarily. On 22 June 2021, Article 15zzr1 was added to the Act of 2 March 2020 on special solutions related to the prevention, counteraction and combating of COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them; the article stipulates that during the state of epidemic threat or state of the epidemic, as announced due to COVID-19, and in the period of six months after their cancellation, there is no statute of limitations for the criminality of the act and no statute of limitations for the execution of a penalty in cases of crimes and fiscal crimes (paragraph 1); the periods referred to above are counted from 14 March 2020 – in the event of an epidemic threat, and from 20 March 2020 – in the event of an epidemic (paragraph 2). The subject of this paper is an attempt to answer the question of whether the indicated provision – interfering with the current model of the relationship between penal fiscal law and tax law – meets constitutional standards.