Maldives High Court in a recent ruling declared to include weekends in calculating the appeal period on tax related issues.
Adding more to this, High Court stated the appellation period for cases concluded at Tax Appeal Tribunal earlier incorporated a 30-day period excluding all weekends. However, under the new ruling, the tax appeal period has been revised to include the weekends.
Earlier, Maldives Supreme Court had revoked the provision under the Tax Appeal regulations with the 30-day appeal period, amending it to a 10-day appeal period. However, following the amendment on Tax Administration Act in 2019, the appeal period was stretched to 30 days while leaving the calculation of the appeal period vague.
Following this tax appeal period had once again changed in 2020, in which it was concluded that the period will be 60-days inclusive of state holidays and weekends.
The most recent ruling come after Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) lodged an appeal case at Maldives High Court following verdict from Tax Appeal Tribunal on the same case.
On Thursday, last week, Maldives High Court had concluded that though the tax appeal period calculation had not been specified under provision, in accordance with the Tax Administration Act the period must be calculated by including weekends.
The appellant’s case was dislodged from Maldives High Court following this ruling.
Meanwhile, the case in question was earlier concluded from Tax Appeal Tribunal on 19th October 2020, when the tax appeal period was 30-days. MIRA appealed the case on 08th December of the same year, resulting in the case being lodged for appeal outside of the 30-day appeal window inclusive of weekends.