The Supreme Court has changed its approach to penalties for late registration of tax invoices
The reduced penalties for late registration of tax invoices, which Law No. 2876-IX introduced in February 2023, do not work for every invoice. The judicial chamber of the Administrative Court of Cassation within the Supreme Court has settled the point, and it is this position that the tax authorities now rely on in their inspection reports.
What the Supreme Court decided
In its judgment of 26 February 2025 in case No. 200/4768/23 the judicial chamber concluded that the reduced penalties apply only to invoices drawn up after Law No. 2876-IX entered into force, that is after 8 February 2023, and to those whose registration deadline had not yet expired as at that date. The new amounts cannot be extended to relations that had already ended by then.
The practical consequence is simple: for an invoice registered late in 2021 or 2022 the penalty is counted under the wording of the code in force at that time, even if the tax assessment notice was issued only this year.
What else matters in the practice of the Supreme Court
- Late registration is a continuing breach: it begins on the day after the final deadline and lasts until the day of actual registration in the Unified Register of Tax Invoices (judgment of 12 March 2024 in case No. 160/13661/23).
- Martial law by itself does not release a taxpayer from liability. The taxpayer has to prove that performance was impossible for that taxpayer and on those very days (judgment of 21 August 2024 in case No. 440/8796/23).
- The evidence is not a general reference to shelling or to a blackout, but documents: reports of damage, confirmation that communications were down, certificates that the territory was on the list of areas of hostilities.
Important. The size of the penalty depends on the length of the delay and is counted as a percentage of the VAT in the invoice: from a small percentage for a delay of a few days to half the amount for an invoice that was never registered. For large volumes the difference between the wordings of the code is therefore measured in millions.
What a business should do, step by step
Check the dates. The date the invoice was drawn up, the final deadline for registration and the date of actual registration. These are what decide which wording of the code applies.
Recalculate the penalty. The inspection report often applies the wrong wording or the wrong percentage: a recalculation gives grounds for objections before the tax assessment notice is even issued.
Collect evidence of the circumstances. Where the delay was caused by the war, documents are needed for each episode separately and not one certificate for the whole period.
Do not miss the deadline for challenge. A complaint to the State Tax Service is filed within ten working days of receiving the tax assessment notice, and a court challenge has its own deadlines under Article 56 of the Tax Code.
What this means for business
A dispute over a penalty for registering an invoice stopped being a dispute about good faith long ago. It is a dispute about dates and about arithmetic, and it is won by the party that comes to the tax office with a calculation of its own rather than with explanations. If you are holding inspection reports for 2022 and 2023, now is the time to read them again.
