Erbschaft- und Schenkungsteuer in Polen und in Deutschland. Konstruktionselemente der Steuer: Steuerpflicht, Besteuerungsgrundlage, Steuerbefreiungen, Stundung und Erlass der Steuer, Steuerklassen, Freibeträge, Instrumentalpflichten. Zweiter Teil

From the comparison of the structural elements of the tax structure, the Polish and German inheritance and donation tax acts, the following conclusions can be drawn: – the German law – unlike the Polish law – allows for the recognition of inheritance and donation tax paid by a German citizen abroad at the taxpayer’s request, – the German act provides for an earlier tax point in the case of acquisition by inheritance than in Poland – it is the moment of opening the inheritance, – German law does not provide for the institution of re-emergence of the tax obligation, – in the German act, there is no broad subjective exemption, as in the Polish one, and in the case of the acquisition of an enterprise (current assets), it does not always provide for a full exemption, and the conditions for the exemption are stricter than in the Polish one, – in the German Act on inheritance and donation tax in a different way, considering not only classification to the tax group, thresholds for tax-free amounts have been defined, – the exemption of pension assets is provided for in the German law, and not, as in the Polish solution, in the Personal Income Tax Act, – the German Act on Inheritance and Donation Tax provides for different legal institutions that do not exist in the Polish law, such as deferral or remission of tax, – instrumental obligations have been regulated differently in both acts, it seems that the German law is not as strict in this respect as the Polish one, and the tax declaration and tax declaration in the German act do not mean the same legal institutions as in the Polish act. Generally speaking, however, beneficial for taxpayers of inheritance and donation tax in Poland is a solution that covers all (in principle) cases of free acquisition of property and property rights.

The Court Fee in the Context of Access to Justice: a Comparative Legal Aspect

The issues of the duty to pay court fees in the context of access to justice are considered. Attention is focused on the role of economic conditions in ensuring access to justice, which include establishing a reasonable amount of court fees and providing a procedural mechanism for deferral, installment payment or partial or full exemption from court fees. Attention is drawn to the need for the judicial authorities to ensure an appropriate balance between the interests of the state in collecting judicial fees for considering claims, on the one hand, and the plaintiff's interest in upholding his claim in court, on the other hand. Despite this, a number of provisions have been investigated that contribute to ensuring the right of access to justice to persons without financial insolvency to pay a court fee in the prescribed amount. It should be noted that the legislation provides for identical reasons for both exempting the court from payment of the court fee and reducing the amount of its payment, as well as for deferring and installment payment of the court fee. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the decision to postpone or defer payment of court fees should not come from the court's own initiative. If the person's financial status is unsatisfactory, the initiative to postpone or defer payment of court fees should come from the plaintiff or defendant, in the event of a counterclaim. Criteria are defined that the court must take into account when deciding on a deferral, installment plan or partial or full exemption from payment of the court fee. So, the court must take into consideration the income of the plaintiff, the prolonged non-receipt by employees of salaries, the non-receipt of rents for the land lease, information about the age and incapacity of individuals, debts to other persons, for example, for utilities, debt collection of the plaintiff within the enforcement proceedings, the presence of dependents etc. The issues of the need to delimit cases of exemption from payment of court fees, provided for by Article 5 of the Law of Ukraine «On Court Fee», and cases where the court fee is not paid at all, provided for by Part 2 of Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine «On Court Fee» is considered. Attention is focused on the fact that the grounds for the court's refusal to apply for deferment, installment plan or partial or full exemption from the payment of the court fee should be reasoned enough.

Financial Services

As shown in Chapter 13, the appropriate treatment of financial services is the single most important design issue that remains to be solved under the VAT. Conventional wisdom holds that margin-based financial services, as opposed to fee-based services, cannot be included in the VAT base calculated on the tax credit method. For this reason, most countries with a VAT exempt financial services entirely, whether margin-based or fee-based. To limit the effects of the rather broad EU type of exemption, two kinds of modifications have been adopted. First, the reach of the full exemption has been narrowed down by taxing fee-based financial services. Second, the cascading effects of the exemption have been mitigated by zero-rating the provision of financial services to registered businesses, providing for partial input VAT recovery. The chapter concludes by drawing some lessons from the analysis which may be useful for African countries.

Envisioning Episcopal Exemption: The Life of Christina of Markyate

This article examines the biography of a twelfth-century English holy woman, the Life of Christina of Markyate—particularly its account of a vision that she had in which she was crowned in the likeness of a bishop's miter—within the context of campaigns undertaken by English monasteries in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries to obtain the papal privilege of full exemption from the sacramental and juridical control of their diocesan bishop. Reading Christina's vision in view of the bids for independence made by St. Albans—the community responsible for commissioning and writing her biography—especially helps to shed light on why the Life seems to figure her in a distinctly episcopal cast. Significantly, the Life's account of this vision may have been shaped by a miniature cycle of the passion and miracles of St. Edmund, produced by Bury circa 1125, seemingly in an effort to provide further confirmation of the abbey's exempt status. In a miniature depicting Edmund's apotheosis, the saint divinely receives a miter-like crown, which is nearly identical in its ornamentation to the one that Christina would later receive. Ultimately under investigation in this article is whether St. Albans' campaign for exemption was one of the influences dictating the composition of the Life of Christina.