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What should you do when the case has already been won and closed, but the court fee paid to the state budget still hasn't been refunded?

Many participants in court proceedings have a logical question: how can you get back the court fees you paid when the law expressly allows you to do so?

Under the previous procedure (until January 7, 2025), the payer had to submit a request for a refund of court fees from the budget to the relevant Treasury department with a specific list of documents. However, at the beginning of 2025, there were changes in the mechanism for refunding court fees.

While the new procedure may seem clear at first glance, in practice it often proves to be more complicated than expected.

1.

As a reminder, on January 7, 2025, Order No. 606 of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, as of November 26, 2024, “On Amendments to the Procedure for the Return (Transfer) of Funds Erroneously or Excessively Credited to the State and Local Budgets” (hereinafter the Order No. 606), entered into force specifically updating the mechanism for refunding court fees in cases provided for in Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine “On Court Fee.”

Such cases are specified in Part 1 of Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine “On Court Fees,” and the payer only needs to ensure that the case is one of the five listed below, in particular:

“1. The amount of court fee paid shall be refunded upon the request of the person who made the payment, based on a court ruling, in the following cases:

1) a reduction in the amount of claims, or if the court fee is paid in an amount exceeding the one established by law;

2) return of the application or complaint;

3) refusal to initiate proceedings in the court of first instance, appeal, or cassation proceedings in the case;

4) the application or complaint is left without consideration (except in cases where such applications or complaints are left without consideration due to the repeated failure of the plaintiff to appear in court without valid reasons and failure to submit an application for consideration of the case in his absence, or failure by the plaintiff to submit materials requested by the court, or at his request (petition);

5) closing (terminating) proceedings in the case (except in cases where the proceedings in the case are closed due to the plaintiff's withdrawal of the claim and such withdrawal is recognized by the court), including in the appellate and cassation instances.

{Part one of Article 7 as amended by Law No. 484-VIII as of May 22, 2015 }...".

Furthermore, pursuant to the Procedure for the Refund (Transfer) of Funds Erroneously or Excessively Credited to the State and Local Budgets, approved by Order No. 787 of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine as of September 3, 2013, as amended (hereinafter the Procedure No. 787), the Treasury authorities process the refund of court fees exclusively on the basis of an electronic submission generated by the respective court.

It should be noted that such a submission is formed directly by the relevant court on the basis of an application for the return of funds from the budget submitted by the payer (or its authorized representative), drawn up with the indication of all the necessary details specified in Paragraph 7 of Section 5 of Chapter I “General Provisions” of Order No. 787, namely:

"The application for the return (transfer) of funds from the budget shall be drawn up and submitted by the payer to the body controlling the collection of budget revenues, regarding the payment subject to return, with the mandatory indication of the following information in the following order:

• name of the payer (business entity) (in Latin characters if the funds are to be returned in a foreign currency),


• EDRPOU code (for legal entities) or surname, first name, patronymic (if any) of the individual (in Latin characters if the funds are to be returned in a foreign currency),


• the taxpayer's registration number (identification number) or series (if any) and passport number (for individuals who, due to their religious beliefs, have refused to accept a taxpayer registration number in accordance with the established procedure and have a mark in their passport),


• date and number of the court decision that has entered into legal force (in case of refund of court fees, except for those charged in error),


• location of the legal entity or place of residence of the individual (in Latin characters if the funds are to be refunded in a foreign currency) and contact telephone number (if agreed),


• the amount of funds to be refunded (transferred),


• the reason for the refund (transfer) of funds from the budget,


• the name of the bank or non-bank payment service provider,


• the location of the bank (in Latin characters in case of refund of funds in foreign currency) where the recipient's account is opened, and


• details of such account (in Latin characters in case of refund in foreign currency),


• card account number of the recipient of funds (if available).

{Paragraph seven of Section 5 of Chapter I as amended by Order of the Ministry of Finance No. 606 as of November 26, 2024}...”.

Considering the above, in order to refund the court fee to the payer or his authorized person (depending on the budget revenue classification code (hereinafter the Revenue code) under which the payment was made) it is necessary to submit an application to the relevant court to which accounts the court fee was paid (according to the Revenue code, for example, 22030101 “Court fee”).

It should be noted that the payer may submit an application to such an authority in electronic form using information and communication systems and in compliance with the requirements of legislation in the field of information protection in information and communication systems, electronic trust services, and electronic document management, provided that the authority controlling the collection of budget revenues has the necessary information and technological capabilities.

It is also important to note that such an electronic application must also include an email address to which the payer can be sent a response, or information about other means of communication with the payer.

Please be aware that the original or a copy of the payment instruction confirming the transfer of funds to the budget is a mandatory element to be provided together with the application for the return (transfer) of funds from the budget by the payer to the body controlling the collection of budget revenues.

Therefore, based on the above, we can clearly indicate the following algorithm of actions that must be performed by the payer to refund court fees in cases specified in Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine “On Court Fees”:

Step 1. Submit an application for the refund of court fees from the budget, drawn up in accordance with the requirements of Section 5 of Chapter I of Order No. 787;

Step 2. Together with the application, attach the original or a copy of the payment instruction confirming the transfer of funds to the budget, or a scanned copy of the specified document with the mandatory electronic signature of the payer based on a qualified electronic signature certificate in accordance with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine "On Electronic Trust Services”, provided that such an application is submitted in electronic form.

Step 3. (If necessary) Power of attorney for the receipt of funds by an authorized person, certified in accordance with the requirements of the Civil Code of Ukraine; a copy of the passport of the authorized person (in case of return of funds to the authorized person).

Step 4. Await the refund of the court fee to the provided account details. To speed up the process, we recommend that you contact the relevant authority after submission and monitor the progress.

Despite the formal clarity of the algorithm of actions, in practice, payers often encounter some organizational and procedural difficulties.

2.

At present, the main obstacles that a payer may encounter when refunding court fees are as follows:

• Technical and organizational difficulties: under the new procedure, the Treasury authorities refund court fees exclusively on the basis of an electronic application generated by the relevant court, the State Judicial Administration (hereinafter the Judicial Administration) or its territorial office. However, not all courts and territorial offices of the Judicial Administration have electronic systems in place to generate such applications, which leads to delays in refunds.


• Low awareness among court staff: some court staff are not fully familiar with the new procedure for refunding court fees, which also causes delays and misunderstandings in the processing of applicants' requests.


• Lack of clear deadlines for consideration of applications: the current procedure does not specify deadlines for considering applications for the refund of court fees, which may delay the refund process.


• Insufficient awareness among payers: payers do not always know where to apply and what documents to submit for the refund of court fees, which complicates the process.

In addition, such simple things as incomplete information in the application for a refund of court fees from the budget can cause delays in the refund process. For example, these can be cases of incorrectly specified grounds for the refund of court fees, or incomplete bank details and/or errors in them (i.e., the absence of at least one of the mandatory elements specified in paragraph 7 of Section 5 of Chapter I “General Provisions” of Order No. 787).

3.

A separate category of more complex cases includes ones that arose in connection with the liquidation of the District Administrative Court of Kyiv (hereinafter the DACK) and the re-examination of such cases by other administrative courts of first instance (a kind of jurisdictional conflict arises when refunding court fees in these cases since the payer is mostly unaware of where to apply for a refund of court fees).

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