L'operation fiscale : contribution a une theorie de l'acte en procedure fiscale
Institution:
Toulouse 1Disciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
An act or instrument which is enforceable at law does not have the same status, in tax procedure, as in administrative law. The tax administration may sometimes be exempt from the obligation to provide a tax collection order, and when such an order is obligatory, it is subject to a procedural 'wrapping' so that it ultimately appears as part of a wider legal entity, the 'tax operation'. However a study of the 'tax operation', in particular of the relation which enables its unity to be demonstrated, turns out to be particularly useful in explaining the way in which procedural faults contagiously affect the whole tax procedure. It would thus appear, in the light of tax jurisprudence, that the judge defines the legal conditions for the unity of the 'tax operation' very strictly. By declining a principle of 'independence of procedures' in many different ways, a principle which is sometimes praetorian sometimes legislative, the judge guarantees for the administration that a certain number of procedural faults for which it may have been responsible, benefit from complete jurisdictional impunity. It thus appeared necessary to suggest that the notion of independence of procedures be revised in favour of a more realistic conception of tax operation. In other words the realism of judicial control should match the realism of tax law. Moreover, the notion of 'tax operation' can be used to explain the distribution of jurisdiction. The tax judge (judicial or administrative) thus has to know, notwithstanding common law rules for deciding on jurisdiction, all litigation whose origins are in the 'tax operation' and both in terms of applying law and deciding upon responsibility. The jurisdictional unity must match that of the 'tax operation'. And, finally, the unity of the 'tax operation' must match the applicable law. An analysis of the jurisprudence reveals that this is not so whenever a global approach to the 'tax operation' brings into question the tax administration's right of repossession.
Abstract FR:
L'acte executoire n'a pas, en procedure fiscale, la place que lui reconnait le droit administratif. A ce titre, l'administration fiscale est parfois dispensee de se delivrer un titre de perception, et quand un tel titre est obligatoire, celui-ci est soumis a un "enrobage" procedural tel qu'il apparait finalement comme un element d'une entite juridique plus large, l'operation fiscale. Or l'etude de l'operation fiscale, notamment celle du lien qui permet d'en affirmer l'unite se revele etre particulierement utile a expliquer les modalites de contagion des vices de procedure tout au long de la procedure fiscale. Il apparait ainsi, a la lumiere de la jurisprudence fiscale, que le juge definit tres strictement les conditions juridiques de l'unite de l'operation fiscale. Usant des multiples declinaisons d'un principe tantot pretorien, tantot legislatif d'independance des procedures, il garantit a l'administration qu'un certain nombre des vices de procedure dont elle a pu etre l'auteur beneficie d'une entiere impunite juridictionnelle. Il a donc paru necessaire de proposer que la notion d'independance des procedures soit revisitee au profit d'une conception plus realiste de l'operation fiscale : au realisme du droit fiscal doit correspondre le realisme du controle juridictionnel. La notion d'operation fiscale permet par ailleurs d'expliquer la repartition des competences juridictionnelles : le juge fiscal (judiciaire ou administratif) est ainsi appele a connaitre, nonobstant les regles de repartition de competence de droit commun, de l'ensemble des litiges trouvant leur source dans l'operation et ceci tant au contentieux de la legalite qu'a celui de la responsabilite. A l'unite de l'operation fiscale correspond celle de la competence. A l'unite de l'operation fiscale devrait enfin correspondre l'unite de son regime : une analyse de la jurisprudence revele que tel n'est pas le cas chaque fois qu'une approche globale de l'operation fiscale met en peril le droit de reprise de l'administration fiscale.