Supreme Court of the Russian Federation: Heirs may receive an overpayment of taxes of the deceased

In order to return this money, the citizen, after legal entry into the inheritance, applied to the tax inspectorate. But she received a refusal. After that, the woman decided to go the other way and how the heiress filed a lawsuit to the Krasnodar district court.

In her lawsuit, she asked to return only part of the overpayment — 895 797 rubles. But the judge refused the claims. The judge considered that the heir to the deceased does not have the right to receive excessively paid tax money. After all, the tax payer was an individual entrepreneur, so only he could receive an overpayment.

The court decision said so that the right to receive money cannot inherit, since the status of an individual entrepreneur ceases in connection with his death.

The court indicated that in the case it is impossible to use the general rules on inheritance, because civil law and inheritance law are not applied to property relations that are based on the administrative subordination of one side of the other, including tax relations.

The heiress that disagree with such a decision appealed a similar conclusion. But in the lawsuit in the regional court, she already asked to return all 3 million rubles of taxes.

The appeal stated the following — under Articles 128, 218 and 1112 of the Civil Code, the amount of taxes paid by the entrepreneur — its property, so the money must be included in the hereditary mass and transferred to the heirs.

At the same time, the court indicated that he could not return the heiress all 3 million rubles, because in the first instance she stated the requirements for a smaller amount. And there were no petitions from her to clarify the claims. Therefore, the judge canceled the decision of the lower court and recovered 895,797 rubles in favor of the heiress.

The local tax service has not agreed with such conclusions. And she filed a complaint against such a decision in the fourth cassation court of general jurisdiction. The judge already abolished the decision of the court of appeal and agreed with the position of the first instance — to refuse a civilian entirely. Then the heiress went to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

There, this dispute studied the three judges of the Armed Forces and emphasized an important circumstance — the heir can receive payments if the testator had the right to do it, but did not have time during his lifetime.

According to the Supreme Court, overpayment cannot be considered a tax duty. And the legislation of the Russian Federation does not prohibit succession in tax legal relations. A citizen is the heiress of the entrepreneur, therefore he has the full right to receive overpayment on taxes in full — VAT and tax on individuals from entrepreneurial activity.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation explained that the Tax Code does not establish the procedure for the appeal of the heirs on the return of such money, but this is not a reason to refuse the lawsuit. As a result, the Armed Forces canceled the decision of the cassation instance and upheld the decision of the Krasnodar Regional Court, which collected 895,797 rubles in favor of Klimtsova.

According to experts, in such a situation, the heir is unlikely to be able to fully return taxes in the framework of pre -trial procedures and the tax service for one application will not meet the heir towards. But the money will definitely be returned through the court. And such facts, as lawyers assure, have already happened in the practice of domestic courts. This was done to the participants of the case N 2-2384/2021, which was considered by the St. Petersburg City Court.

According to experts, in similar cases the percentage of positive court decisions is greater than negative. This is especially true of cases when the decision to return was made by the tax authority during the lifetime of the taxpayer-employer.

Determination of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation N 18-KAD22-33-K4

source: «Russian newspaper»Natalya Kozlova