The amendments to the Tax Code by which ATU Gagauzia is obliged to refund VAT from its own budget were declared unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court on Tuesday accepted the complaints filed by the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia and a group of MPs of the Bloc of Communists and Socialists, IPN reports.
The challenged law was published in the Official Gazette on October 21 and entered into force on November 1, 2023. The Court was requested to establish the constitutionality of Law No. 285 of October 5, 2023 to amend Article 6 of the Tax Code. Article 6 of the Fiscal Code stipulates that ATU Gagauzia must refund VAT from its own budget, not from the national budget.
The Constitutional Court examined the two requests during several sittings, including today. The Court declared Article 6, paragraph 11 of the Tax Code unconstitutional. “Until a possible intervention of Parliament, the amount of value added tax and excise duties paid by economic agents from the Autonomous Territorial Unit with special status will be refunded from the state budget,” said the Court’s president Domnica Manole.
The Court also ruled that the VAT and excise duties paid by economic agents from ATU Gagauzia for the period between November 1, 2023, when the new provisions came into force, and February 22, 2024, when the effect of Article 6, paragraph 11 was suspended, will ne refunded from the budget of the Autonomous Territorial Unit with special status. “If the amount of value added tax and excise duties that is to be refunded exceeds the amount of value added tax and excise duties collected into the budget of the ATU with special status, the difference will be covered with state budget funds,” stated Domnica Manole.
The Constitutional Court’s judgment is final, cannot be appealed, enters into force on the date of its adoption and is published in the Official Gazette.
