Information Note on the Court’s case-law 48
December 2002
Mieg de Boofzheim v. France (dec.) - 52938/99
Decision 3.12.2002 [Section II]
Article 6
Criminal proceedings
Article 6-1
Criminal charge
Relief granted in the course of tax proceedings from penalties imposed for bad faith: Article 6 inapplicable
In the context of revised tax assessments, the applicants were required to pay arrears of income tax, plus interest, and also a penalty of 40% for bad faith. They lodged a complaint and in January 1995 brought proceedings before the Administrative Court, seeking to have the additional income tax and the associated penalties annulled. By decision of June 1995 of the Director of Fiscal Services, the applicants were granted exemption from interest and penalties. In 1996 and 1997, the authorities ordered exemption from the penalties initially applied in respect of bad faith on the amounts still in issue and a further exemption from penalties. The administrative court reached a decision in May 2000. Before the Court, the applicants complained of the length of the proceedings.
Article 6 § 1: the revised tax assessments made in respect of the applicants were accompanied by penalties for bad faith having a criminal character for the purposes of Article 1. However, that “criminal aspect” did not affect the proceedings taken as a whole, since the applicants subsequently obtained exemptions recognising their good faith, the most significant of which was granted almost six months after the application initiating the proceedings before the administrative court. These exemptions were of such a kind as to render the criminal aspect of Article 6 § 1 inapplicable. Since the dispute was not criminal in nature and tax proceedings do not fall within the scope of civil rights and obligations, as held in Ferranzi v. Italy (ECHR 2001-VII), Article 6 § 1 of the Convention is not applicable in this case: incompatibility ratione materiae.
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This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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