Tax Treaty Case Law around the Globe 2013

1. S. 43 Introduction

Slovakia has belonged to countries with rather a low number of tax disputes. To date, no major international direct tax cases have been dealt by Slovak courts.

In order to better understand the Slovak court system which has not so far specialized in tax law cases, let me provide a brief overview. There are no special administrative courts focusing on tax matters at the lower level. Moreover, the Supreme Court of Slovakia which currently has more than 50 senates split into 4 divisions (Administration, Criminal, Civil and Commercial Law) does not allow for such a tax specialization. The Administration Division involves 16 senates deciding on ad hoc cases covering disciplinary issues as well as disputes regarding financial law including taxes, social security and the decisions of any other administrative state authority. In other words, none of these 16 senates is specialized in tax law. Last but not least, not all of the court decisions regarding tax issues are published.

By way of comparison, in the Czech Republic since 2003 the specialized supreme administrative court has taken decisions in experienced tax law senates and tax cases are published at both levels, easi...