Unreasonable and unfair

A Hungarian limited partnership went into liquidation owing ten million forints in tax. To ensure the money would be secured the revenue authorities exercised a power of attachment over the taxpayer’s shareholding in another company preventing the shares from being sold.

The shares were then worth about 103 million forints and the authority was required to sell them within two months of the attachment. It was only after two years that the authority released the shares which by then had become worthless.

The taxpayer sought compensation from the Hungarian courts.

The court said the burden of proof rested with the taxpayer to show how much the shares would made had they been sold within two months of the date the tax authority exercised its power of attachment. The court said there was no causal link between the authority’s...