8.  The applicant was born in 1949 and lives in Tampere, Finland. 9.  On 22 May 1998 the Häme Tax Office (verotoimisto, skattebyrån) requested the applicant, who ran a car-repair workshop, to submit his observations regarding some alleged errors in his value-added tax (VAT) declarations (arvonlisävero, mervärdesskatt) for fiscal years 1994 and 1995. 10.  On 9 July 1998 the Tax Office found that there were deficiencies in the applicant’s book-keeping in that, for instance, receipts and invoices were inadequate. The Tax Office made a reassessment of the VAT payable basing itself on the applicant’s estimated income, which was higher than the income he had declared. It ordered him to pay, inter alia, tax surcharges (veronkorotus, skatteförhöjning) amounting to 10% of the reassessed tax liability (the additional tax surcharges levied on the applicant totalled 1,836 Finnish Marks, corresponding to 308.80 euros). 11.  The applicant appealed to the Uusimaa County Administrative Court (lääninoikeus, länsrätten) (which later became the Helsinki Administrative Court (hallinto-oikeus, förvaltningsdomstolen)). He requested an oral hearing and that the tax inspector as well as an expert appointed by the applicant be heard as witnesses. On 1 February 2000 the Administrative Court took an interim decision inviting written observations from the tax inspector and after that an expert statement from an expert chosen by the applicant. The tax inspector submitted her statement of 13 February 2000 to the Administrative Court. The statement was further submitted to the applicant for his observations. On 25 April 2000 the applicant submitted his own observations on the tax inspector’s statement. The statement of the expert chosen by him was dated and submitted to the court on the same day. 12.  On 13 June 2000 the Administrative Court held that an oral hearing was manifestly unnecessary in the matter because both parties had submitted all the necessary information in writing. It also rejected the applicant’s claims. 13.  On 7 August 2000 the applicant requested leave to appeal, renewing at the same time his request for an oral hearing. On 13 March 2001 the Supreme Administrative Court refused him leave to appeal.