Tax Office Demands Taxes For 10 Years From Unemployed In Zelva

The outraged Zelva resident will now sue the tax inspectorate himself.

The Zelva District Court did not satisfy Zelva District Tax Inspectorate's suit against local resident Aliaksandr Linkevich with a view to deprive him of his rights to drive and the right to travel abroad because he, being unemployed, allegedly had not paid taxes on income for almost 10 years.

The court ordered the tax office to find other ways of collecting debts. Aliaksandr Linkevich now wants to sue the tax office in turn.

Aliaksandr Linkevich told Radio Svaboda that he had not had a permanent job for about 10 years, although he is a construction metal worker. He worked, wherever it was possible: at the construction site and at the collective farm, and later he lived with his family mainly on casual earnings:

– I have nothing to hide, because my parents and my wife's mother were helping us. Do you think it's good to live like this? But today half of the country lives the way, when money is given by parents or grandparents out of their pensions. I'm not to blame for the fact that there is no work. Factories are standing, and salaries are not enough to support the family. And I did not go to steal.

For the last 3 months, Linkevich has been officially working in Poland, he pays taxes there, when he is free, he comes to the family to Zelva. This year he was summoned to the district tax inspectorate and asked to fill in a declaration.

Linkevich filled in the declaration, he wrote that for a certain period of time either his parents or mother-in-law gave money for the maintenance of his family.

The tax authorities, however, found out that Linkevich had traveled to Poland, which means he was running a car and buying things, which was recorded into a computer at the border, and the data was sent to the tax office. As a result, it turned out that his expenses exceeded revenues in the declaration.

– I asked the tax authorities: where did you get that if I went to Poland, I filled in the tank for my money? Why do you consider this to be my expenses? My father or my mother-in-law were sitting next to me, and they filled in the tank for their own expense. I asked the tax authorities to provide me with the proof that it was I, who paid for these expenses. No one gave me such proofs.

According to the declaration, Linkevich initially had about 1 thousand rubles of unpaid taxes to the budget. After he was able to collect additional documents, the amount of tax was reduced to 700 rubles. And on the basis of the fact that the tax was not paid, the inspection filed a lawsuit to deprive Linkevich of the right to drive, as well as the right to travel abroad.

However, the decision of the Zelva district court did not sound in favor of the tax inspection. The court ordered the tax office to find other ways of collecting debts.

Linkevich insists that nothing should be paid to the state. According to him, the tax office must admit that it unjustifiably charged tax on the amount of income, which he actually did not have. For this reason, Linkevich is going to sue the tax inspection.

– It hurts me, because I have lived without normal work for so many years and no one has ever offered me anything. When it was difficult, the state turned away from me, even no one asked how I was bringing up my children, where and for what I lived. And now suddenly they found unpaid taxes. The tax inspectorate wants me to pay taxes on those incomes, which I didn’t have. But it's not possible, we still have rights and courts. I will fight.