Legal issue: constitutionality of rules imposing upon a company the duty to pay VAT with regard to the goods sold, given that the company wrongly considered itself to be a payer of VAT, but was subsequently deemed to be the payer of the unified tax on imputed income.
Ratio decidendi: the contested rules do not contradict the Constitution, but they should not be understood, when applied, as obliging to pay VAT in such cases. Wrong declaration of VAT should not lead to its collection, because the duty to pay a tax flows from the law (given that there are grounds envisaged by the Tax Code). The duty to pay both taxes in cases like this would lead to an unlawful restriction of taxpayer’s property rights and would mean an unjustified impoundment of his monies for the benefit of the treasury, and thus violate an equitable balance of public and private interests.
