The plan for monitoring and combating the shadow economy, that already has been field tested in the Lisbon area by the Tax and Customs Authority, now will be rolled out across the nation.
After several months of welcome delay, the authority is now at the final stage of recruitment and by the end of the September thousands of bright new tax inspectors will have completed their training and will be sent out into the world to check up on Portugal’s business community.
The aim is to visit all commercial establishments operating in the country and to ‘monitor compliance of invoicing.’
The strengthening of the inspections force was announced on Wednesday by the Ministry of Finance which said that the tax inspectors on the ground will be advising businesses about their 'obligations' when billing and sending invoices to the tax authorities, and collecting information on the degree of compliance with these obligations.
In the rare cases where the inspectors find that all is not being carried out strictly in accordance with the regulations, fines reluctantly may have to be issued.
It is not yet known what percentage of the inspectors’ salaries will be made up from commissions from the fines they issue, still a bone of contention between the public and Finanças office staff who receive a cut from money received from the ‘coercive collection’ system.
The Tax and Customs Authority wants the public to be aware that it is out there, working for the public good, spotting tax fiddlers. It wants consumers to value "efforts that have been developed to combat evasion tax" and for shoppers to see that the tax inspectors are out there, on the streets, working for the common good.
The ultimate objective of the Ministry of Finance is that its tax inspectors visit "all commercial establishments operating in the country."
