7. Nulitatea actului fiscal în era algoritmilor
7. Nullity of the tax act in the age of algorithms

Summary/Abstract: The accelerated digitalisation of tax administration calls for a substantial reconsideration of the legal regime governing the nullity of tax administrative acts. The classical, formalistic model enshrined in the Fiscal Procedure Code is grounded in the premises of a traditional administration, based on the individual decision making of the public official and the material form of the administrative act. The use of risk analysis algorithms, the automation of decision making processes and the operation of centralised information systems, however, profoundly affect these foundations. Tax acts generated or decisively influenced by opaque algorithms, or affected by malfunctions of centralised information systems, lack essential elements of legality, particularly with regard to effective reasoning, the possibility of judicial review and the protection of the taxpayer’s legitimate expectations. The lack of algorithmic transparency and systemic error should be recognised as autonomous grounds of nullity, deriving from the duty to give reasons, the right to defence and European standards of good administration. On this basis, the paper advances a reconceptualisation of the nullity of the tax administrative act, moving beyond an exclusively formal paradigm and situating nullity within the sphere of legal guarantees required in the face of nontransparent, unintelligible or system generated administrative decisions specific to a digitalised tax administration.

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