Study On The Burden Of Proof In Taxation Litigation

As an administrative action, taxation is used by state to deprive citizens'property rights legally, so its legitimacy and rationality decides directly the realization of citizens'basic rights as well as their degree. Taxation litigation is the last resort for taxpayers'rights remedying, while the outcome of litigation usually depends on allocation of burden of proof. Accordingly, there are a lot of practical significance and theoretical value to study on burden of proof in taxation litigation.Taxation litigation is a critical path to promote basic conceptions of tax law, therefore it shall (1) follow the philosophy of tax justice in order to protect taxpayers'rights effectively, (2) safeguarding taxation orders so as to provide an exact prediction for state's fiscal revenue and taxpayers'tax burden, and (3) guarantee taxation efficiency by taking use of reduced proceedings or typed rules to alleviate or exempt tax authorities from full investigation and corresponding burden of proof.The object of taxation litigation decides litigants'scope of testification. According to the fundamental principle of administrative proceeding,"forensics first, then adjudication", the object of taxation litigation shall adopt the idea of"doctrine of issue". Both of the litigants can not produce evidence, which is out of the issue, to prove legality or illegality of the tax imposition, and the court of law shall also not require litigants undertaking burden of proof out of the issue.According to the regulation about citizen's basic rights in constitution and the basic conceptions of taxation litigation, all of the principles of legal prescription, equity, efficiency, good faith and proportionality should be obeyed, as determining the allocation rules of burden of proof, to satisfy the tax justice to a great extent.There are two types of, by and large, allocation rules of burden of proof in the world: civil law system and common law system. The former mainly adopts"theory of regulation", in which the litigants bear burden of proof respectively on facts that is beneficial for them. While the taxpayers, as plaintiff, primarily bear burden of proof in the latter system. There is no difference between taxation litigation and administrative litigation in our country, which is too general and lack of adjusting rules on burden of proof. It is necessary to penetrate into different facts of taxation essentials and classify different types of litigations, so as to make a refined allocation of burden of proof in taxation litigation.As a result, the following basic rules shall be complied with when allocating the burden of proof in taxation litigation in our country: (1) tax authorities assume absolute burden of proof on fundamental facts of taxation essentials, (2) litigants undertake respectively burden of proof on the facts of ascertaining tax payable which are beneficial for them, (3) tax authorities assume the burden of proof in administrative penalty, tax payment guaranty and enforcement, (4) taxpayers bear the burden of proof in tax administrative omission and administrative compensation.There are general principles and adjusting principles in the allocation of burden of proof. If it comes to difficulty of proof, evidence bias, weapon inequality and other situations, we shall adjust the general allocation principles of burden of proof by alleviation or reversion. The alleviating and reversing rules of burden of proof in taxation litigation, hereby, are created for some special situations. The alleviating rules apply to presumptive taxation, legal fiction and alleviating agreement, while the reversing rules apply exceptively to presumption of law, tax adjustment and unconventional facts.