Customs and Tax Criminal Litigation
Criminal defence before the courts in smuggling, false declaration and tax fraud proceedings.
Customs and tax criminal litigation has a distinctive character: it combines punitive and financial rules, gives the Administration the dual role of prosecutor and civil party, and rests on a specific evidentiary regime in which the official report (procès-verbal) plays a central role.
The firm intervenes from the outset — interview, seizure, drafting of the report — to safeguard the rights of the defence, and then before the trial court to contest the constituent elements of the customs or tax offence: false declaration, smuggling, the value of seized goods, and the basis for fines and confiscation.
Particular attention is paid to settlement procedures with the Administration, which in many cases bring proceedings to an end before judgment, alongside the tax procedure before appeal commissions and the administrative courts.