Appeal against a tax assessment and administrative dispute: deadlines and procedure
A tax assessment is not the end of the procedure. If you disagree with it, both ordinary and extraordinary legal remedies are available to you — first an appeal, and then an administrative dispute before the court. Both routes have strict deadlines and clear rules, and a missed deadline generally means a lost opportunity. Below we walk through the course of both procedures: from lodging an appeal to the judgment and the legal remedies against it.
Appeal against a tax assessment: a 30-day deadline
An appeal against a first-instance tax assessment is permitted within 30 days. It is addressed to the competent second-instance authority and filed with the first-instance tax authority — in person, by registered post, or declared into the record. If an appeal is filed directly with the second-instance authority within the deadline, it is deemed timely, and that authority will forward it to the first-instance authority without delay.
An appeal must contain all the elements of any other submission and must, in addition, identify the assessment being challenged, the name of the authority that issued it, and the grounds of dissatisfaction with the assessment. An appeal may also be lodged where no assessment has been issued at all within the prescribed period — on account of so-called administrative silence, and in that case it may be filed directly with the second-instance authority.
Three points from practice are worth knowing. First, an appeal generally has suspensive effect, although the authority may exceptionally decide that it does not — in order to protect the public interest, take urgent measures, or avert damage that could not otherwise be averted. Second, a party may waive the right of appeal from the day the assessment is received until the appeal deadline expires, and may withdraw an appeal already lodged right up until the decision on the appeal is dispatched — but neither a waiver nor a withdrawal can be revoked. Third, if the instruction on legal remedies in the assessment is incorrect, the party may proceed either under the applicable legislation or according to the instruction — an incorrect instruction must not operate to the party's detriment.
What happens to your appeal
The first-instance authority first examines whether the appeal is admissible, timely and lodged by an authorised person; if not, it will reject it by decision. If it is, it considers the lawfulness of the challenged assessment — and here there is an option that is often forgotten: if it finds the appeal well founded, the first-instance authority may itself replace the assessment with a new one, without sending the file to the higher instance. Otherwise, it forwards the appeal together with the file to the second-instance authority.
The second-instance authority may dismiss the appeal, annul the assessment in whole or in part, or vary it. It will annul the assessment and decide the matter itself if it finds that the facts were established incompletely or incorrectly, that the rules of procedure were not observed, that the operative part is unclear or contradicts the reasoning, or that the legislation was applied incorrectly. An important rule protecting the appellant applies here: the second-instance authority generally may not vary the assessment to the detriment of the party who lodged the appeal. The reasoning of the decision on the appeal must address all the grounds of appeal — and an administrative dispute may be brought against the second-instance decision.
Administrative dispute: a claim within 30 days
Administrative disputes are governed by the Administrative Disputes Act, which has applied since 1 July 2024. A dispute is brought by a claim which may seek the annulment or a declaration of nullity of a decision, the issuing of a decision not issued within the prescribed period, or action by the defendant; alongside the principal claim, the return of property and compensation for damage may also be sought.
The deadline for a claim is 30 days from service of the decision. If the decision was not served on the party at all, the deadline is 90 days from becoming aware of the decision, and the same deadline applies where the decision incorrectly states that a claim is not permitted. The claim is filed with the competent administrative court in person, by post, or electronically through the information system — where an electronic claim must bear a qualified electronic signature. A claim filed within the deadline with a court lacking jurisdiction, or with the defendant, is also deemed timely.
Unlike an appeal, a claim generally has no suspensive effect. The court may nevertheless decide that it does, if enforcement of the decision would cause the claimant damage that would be difficult to repair and a stay is not contrary to the public interest. And one procedural particularity to bear in mind: the authorised representative for proceedings before the administrative court may be an attorney, a person employed by the claimant, or a close relative — a tax adviser does not appear before the court as authorised representative, but their expert analysis and preparation of the claim and evidence form the substantive basis of the dispute.
The course of the dispute and the judgment
On receipt of the claim the court examines its own jurisdiction, the regularity of the claim and the conditions for conducting the dispute, and then serves the claim on the defendant for a response, with a deadline of between 30 and 60 days. The defendant must submit the complete case file with the response — if it fails to do so, the court may decide even without the file. The court freely assesses the evidence and establishes the facts, taking into account both the facts from the administrative procedure and those it establishes itself.
The hearing is public and, as a rule, a single session is scheduled for the taking of all evidence; in the cases prescribed by law the court may decide the dispute by judgment without a hearing — for instance where the facts are undisputed and only the application of the law is contested, or where it finds from the state of the file that the decision is unlawful. The court decides on the claim by judgment, which may be based only on facts and evidence on which the parties have been given the opportunity to comment.
After the judgment: appeal to the High Administrative Court and extraordinary remedies
The parties may lodge an appeal against a judgment of the administrative court, which is decided by the High Administrative Court of the Republic of Croatia. The deadline is 15 days from service of the judgment, and the appeal is filed with the administrative court that issued it. There are three grounds: a material breach of the rules of procedure, incorrectly or incompletely established facts, and incorrect application of substantive law. An appeal against a judgment stays its enforcement — but it is not permitted in every case, as the law also prescribes exceptions.
Alongside the appeal as an ordinary legal remedy, there are extraordinary ones: reopening of the dispute and a request for extraordinary review of the lawfulness of a final judgment. These come into consideration only in special situations prescribed by law — but they mean that even a final judgment is not always the last word.
Conclusion
The road from a tax assessment to a final court decision has clear stages: an appeal within 30 days, a decision on the appeal, a claim to the administrative court within 30 days, a judgment and, if needed, an appeal to the High Administrative Court within 15 days. Each of these stages calls for a timely response and well-prepared argumentation — because a dispute is generally won or lost on the facts and evidence brought into the procedure in good time. If you are considering an appeal against a tax assessment, or your case is already in the appeal procedure, an expert assessment of its merits before taking the next step can save both time and money — feel free to get in touch.
This article is informational in nature and does not constitute tax advice for any individual case.