ST. PETERSBURG, July 24 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – The Russian Criminal Code does not imply that citizens are to be found guilty of fraud if they could get unjustified tax benefits associated with purchase of residential properties because of mistakes made by tax authorities if such taxpayers submitted documents free of signs of forgery, according to a ruling passed by Russia’s Constitutional Court.

The Constitutional Court has passed its ruling in a case, where a military officer could obtain tax benefits in the framework of a special savings and mortgage program aimed to provide members of the military with housing, although, as it was found later, he was not entitled thereto under the terms of this program. Nevertheless, the tax authority he had turned to granted his request.

Lower courts have successively found the officer guilty of fraud; finally, he was convicted of this crime and fined, as courts said they could not find a causal connection between the officer’s actions and the mistaken decision of the tax authority; the fact of the mistake did not prove the defendant’s innocence, but was just indicative of the circumstances facilitating the crime. Moreover, the courts cited the fact that the defendant was a researcher with a military academy as evidence that he was educated enough to be versed in tax legislation.

The officer challenged the final court ruling in the Constitutional Court claiming the respective provisions of the Criminal Code were unconstitutional since it permitted taxpayers to be found criminally responsible without finding his or her actions to be not in good faith and establishing the fraudulent nature of such actions, in fact making defendants criminally responsible for mistakes made by tax authorities.

According to the Constitutional Court decision, citizens may get wrong as to justification of tax deductions, observing that the mere fact of applying for such to tax authorities, even without a valid substantiation, cannot be seen as evidence of fraudulent intent and as a socially dangerous act; tax authorities are to be responsible for their own mistakes, the ruling reads.