Information Note on the Court’s case-law 10

September 1999

Ponsetti and Chesnel v. France (dec.) - 36855/97 and 41731/98

Decision 14.9.1999 [Section III]

Article 4 of Protocol No. 7

Right not to be tried or punished twice

Criminal as well as administrative penalties imposed for failure to complete tax declarations: inadmissible

Both applicants failed to fill in their tax returns. Their omission resulted in administrative penalties being imposed upon them by the tax authorities in the form of an increase in the tax payable. The authorities also instituted criminal proceedings against them, at the end of which they were convicted of tax fraud. The criminal cou rt held that they had deliberately evaded paying tax. The applicants appealed – unsuccessfully – against their conviction, submitting that they had been punished twice on the basis of the same facts. They lodged appeals on points of law with the Court of C assation, but these were also unsuccessful.

Inadmissible under Article 4 of Protocol 7: The administrative conviction and the criminal one were based on two provisions of the General Tax Code relating to entirely separate offences with different constitue nt elements. The tax offence was designed to punish only a failure to declare one’s tax liability within the time-limit, whereas the criminal offence was designed to punish an intentional failure to do so: manifestly ill-founded.

© Council of Europe/Europ ean Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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