DR & AJU has filed a lawsuit and requested the suspension of execution, seeking cancellation of the decision of tax investigation and tax offense investigation (hereinafter referred to as “tax investigation in question”), citing the principle of prohibition of duplicate tax investigation. Within four days from the date of application, DR & AJU successfully obtained a decision to suspend the effect of the tax investigation decision in question, which was notified by the Commissioner of the NTS Seoul Regional Office, regarding the investigation of the applicants' capital gains tax and gift tax.
A tax investigation conducted by the tax authorities is an administrative measure aimed at obtaining tax data by force, which has a significant impact on the determination of tax base and tax amount subsequent to taxpayers’ exercise of their defense rights and completion of the tax investigation. DR & AJU pointed out that the tax investigation in question was a duplicate tax investigation without justification for re-examining the same tax items and tax period as previously examined. In addition, DR & AJU stressed the urgent need to prevent irreparable harm, such as the travel restrictions imposed on the applicants in the event of a tax investigation and fines for negligence in case of non-compliance with attendance, successfully resulting in the cessation of the tax investigation in question that was already in progress.
This case is of great significance in practice as it confirmed that if it is established that the notified tax investigation is a duplicate tax investigation, the tax investigation can be suspended until its illegality is determined by a judicial agency. DR & AJU successfully defended Client against arbitrary tax investigations by the tax office.
