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State auctions 65,000 properties over tax arrears

beggarPortugal’s families and businesses have paid €30 billion in tax so far this year.

Figures released today show that in the year to the end of October the public coffers have continued to fill at a rate that exceeded the most optimistic forecasts of the Ministry of Finance.

Almost 17% of the country’s GDP is now made up by taxing her citizens and businesses.

This is an increase of 6.8% year on year, which exceeds the latest government forecasts despite concerning falls in corporation tax receipts and stamp duty.

According to the Ministry of Finance, "the cumulative net revenue from indirect taxes increased by 5.9% and the cumulative net revenue from direct taxes grew 7.9% year on year," specifying a particularly positive performance from the dreaded VAT, up 7.2%, and personal income tax up 10.8% compared to 2013."

The revenue from VAT and income tax is a result of "the recovery in economic activity and the increasing effectiveness of new measures to combat tax evasion and the black economy for VAT and income tax."

The Government does not mention the drop in corporate tax which fell 3.9% year on year but if economic activity is booming as is suggested, then this has failed to produce additional profits to tax.

Many companies are now domiciled outside Portugal for tax reasons, Holland being a favourite and Luxembourg a close second, stating their foreign registration enables them to access funding with greater ease than if based in Portugal where they trade. 

This ruse also allows these companies to avoid paying corporation taxes to the Portuguese government and allows them to wallow in the warmth of cozy tax deals made with other less aggressive EU tax regimes.

In addition to the direct and indirect taxation, companies and families had to shell out an astounding €11.2 billion in social security contributions which are used to fund current government expenditure. These increased 3.3% year on year made up partly by a marginal rise in the paid employment level.

When social security income is added to the other taxes, the country's voters have in effect send the government over €40 billion in the first ten months of the year.

In its hard-nosed tax policy, the country’s tax department also has seized and sold off almost 65,000 properties from Portuguese citizens and businesses, double the number than in the same period last year.

The Socialist Party proposed a suspension of these forced sales of peoples’ homes but was voted down in parliament as being far too friendly to the poor - the public accounts must always come first.

The real cost of this misery only can be guessed at but 64,955 property owners who have often lost all and have been made homeless by the state as they cannot pay their tax demands are unlikely to be voting for the coalition next year.

Each day this year there has been an auction on average of 197 land, houses, and business premises due to taxes owed.

Add to this the  property foreclosures by banks and many might ponder the human cost to this austerity period, known more realistically as a harsh, biting recession.

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Comments  

-2 #4 GLADTOBEOUT 2014-11-30 11:17
:cry:
I sold my house earlier this year at a massive loss and moved back to the UK. These dreadful tax rises and increases in utility prices and retrospective legislation along with not knowing what the Portuguese would come up with next made living in Portugal miserable!
0 #3 algarveandroid 2014-11-28 17:23
The festering corruption has come to a head , banking , governmental etc and the piper has to be paid , unfortunately due to the way Portugals elite protected thier wealth its the poor that now have to pay.

Protectionism fails , be that the high street and mall families , the electricity company , Telecom , banks , its now showing how bad things are...and now the assets of the people are sold off to the wealthy outside their borders.

Its time for jail sentences , seeing as how hanging is outlawed , for the misery allowed to happen for generations in the past and into the future. Start with the top and work the way down.

It is still happening , do you think the legislation about registering and marking cadernetas is about anything other than land reclaiming from the poor?

Do you think Lisbon politicians care about anything other than the tax from the Algarve , be that toruism , tolls or agriculture....after all they have started selling off oil licences offshore.
-1 #2 Geoffrey Thomas 2014-11-26 17:24
the real decisions are being made in Brussels.... this is TRUE and it is ABOUT TIME !

Only an imbecile cannot fail to have noticed that the lunatics were freed from the asylum 40 years ago. And - along with the previous elite - have roamed the corridors of power since.

Just as the French freed the loonies of Coimbra as they retreated from Wellington's troops 200 years ago.

If Portugal wants to join the EU this is its big chance. NOW.

It must agree (again) to implement laws, regulations and such like -as it allegedly did the 1st time 28 years ago. It must facilitate an opening of their markets to other member citizens. Union means Union.

And not just be open to China - which correct me if I am wrong is not yet in the EU ? Although no doubt soon will be as the European Union spreads itself eastwards.

And too many ordinary Portuguese have danced to the 'loony tunes'. Even making requests 'Please organise a municipal coach to take us to the seaside or... Please rebuild our community centre.'

Only a few misfit honest ones and us honest foreigners standing out of the madness. And yet also paying for it !
0 #1 Peter Booker 2014-11-26 08:42
Editor, we cannot have it both ways. People in the past have derided the sloppy nature of tax enforcement in Portugal. There were far too many people avoiding their tax responsibilities.

Now the Finanças are tightening their act, and those who have been avoiding their tax are being caught. As law abiding and tax-paying citizens, we must say, "About time, too."

That does not mean that I support the iniquities in the Portuguese tax system, such as 23% VAT in restaurants. But as I have said before, the government in Lisbon is an ineffectual talking-shop (it was Salazar who invented this phrase about the chamber of deputies), and the real decisions are being made in Brussels.

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