Compromise as a remedy in tax law disputes

Some tax law related disputes may arise between taxpayers and tax authorities. For some of these disputes, the taxpayer resorts directly to litigation, however the other disputes can be solved using administrative dispute resolution methods. One of the methods in administrative dispute resolution is the compromise. The purpose of this study is to offer a solution how compromise can be more functional. Compromise in tax law aims to resolve the disputes between tax administration and taxpayer without the need to resort the judiciary. When a tax-related dispute is solved through compromise, tax office gets paid in a shorter time. When such disputes are settled by compromise they totally disappear; and it takes much shorter time when compared with judicial remedy. Compromise provides benefits to both tax administration and taxpayer and it provides benefits for the judicial authorities due to the fact that it reduces the number of the files that will be delivered to tax jurisdiction. It is also seen that the tax administrations, in the countries that are examined within the scope of this study, encourage taxpayers to solve their tax-related disputes by following other ways apart from judiciary. Besides that, there are some criticisms against existing compromise regulations and practices. The main point of all those criticisms is the fact that compromise complies with neither principle of legality nor principle of equality. In order to provide a more effective and salutary progress of compromise, criticism against compromise should be minimized. Therefore, in this study, details that are supposed to be changed in existing structure of compromise are studied. Moreover, problems that are faced during implementation of compromise are discussed, and solution offers are focussed on. In the first part of this study general structure of the compromise is put forth. The general structure of the compromise is presented. The legal nature of compromise, comparisons with similar concepts and authorities, evaluation of compromise according to basic principles are taken into consideration. On the other hand, it is also discussed what other ways apart from judicial ways are used while settling tax-related disputes in comparative law. And finally, in the first part of the study, significance of compromise in tax law is explained. In the second part, compromise practices in Tax Procedure Law and Customs Law are studied. And in this part, suggestions regarding compromise are focused on. Keywords: Tax, Compromise, Pre-Assessment Compromise, Post Assessment Compromise, Tax Dispute, Resolution of Tax Disputes.