Interesting practice

During 2011-2012 thanks to the effectors of our specialists the regular customer of Law Firm “Mostovenko & Partners” received two court decisions in its favour in the administrative disputes with the customs body on returning the excessively paid customs duty and VAT.

In order to protect the regular customer’s interests the specialists of our firm prepared and submitted to the district administrative court two claims on recognizing the actions of the customs body related to determination of the customs value of goods to be illegal, and on cancelling the decisions of the customs body related to determination of the customs value of goods and on returning the excessively paid sums for customs clearance of goods, i.e. customs duty and VAT, from the State Budget of Ukraine.

The ground for appealing against illegal actions of the customs body on the first case was independent calculation of the customs value of goods by the second method, i.e. "by contract price for similar goods", even though the claimant’s applicant submitted all necessary documents required by the customs inspector, which confirmed the value of goods specified in the Consignment Note according to the contract price.

Decision of the court of primary jurisdiction was made in favour of the claimant, and further on took effect after the case was considered in the court of appeal, which left the decision unchanged.

The second case is interesting because the decision of the customs body on independent determination of the customs value of goods has been made on the basis of the information published in the database of the unified automated information system of the State Customs Service (UAIS SCSU).  The source of this information was the entry on the customs value of property in the consignment note, the lawfulness of customs value formation in which was the subject of consideration in the first case.

The court of primary jurisdiction did not accept the claimant’s arguments and refused in satisfaction of claim.  Instead, the court of appeal satisfied the statement of appeal prepared and submitted by the specialists of our firm, and cancelled illegal and ungrounded decision of the court of primary jurisdiction.