Supreme Court: tax audit does not automatically grant access to banking secrecy

The Supreme Court confirmed that the mere fact of a tax audit is not a sufficient basis for disclosing bank secrecy. The relevant legal position is set out in case No. 757/25789/25-ts on the tax authority’s claim against the bank.

The essence of the dispute was the requirement for the State Tax Service of Ukraine to obtain information from the bank about the movement of funds, counterparties and the purpose of payments of an individual. The taxpayers justified this by the need to conduct an audit, but courts of all instances refused to grant the application.

The Supreme Court emphasized that bank secrecy is information protected by law, and its disclosure is possible only if there are sufficient legal grounds and a clear procedure is followed. Failure to submit reports or the need for an audit in itself does not automatically give the right to access such data.

The court also emphasized that the supervisory authority must prove the real need to obtain information and the impossibility of obtaining it in another way. In this case, no such evidence was provided, so the tax authority’s appeal was dismissed, and the decisions of the previous instances were left unchanged.

Significance of the decision

This position is of great importance for practice: it clearly outlines the limits of the powers of the tax authorities and guarantees the protection of financial information of bank clients. The decision also confirms the established case law on the priority of the right to confidentiality of banking transactions.