The Government said today that the deployment of a thousand new tax inspectors working for the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) "is coming soon" and it certainly will not be delayed until a new government tales over.
"The start date entry of a thousand new tax inspectors is expected shortly and it will be this Government that takes this initiative, it will not be the next government," the Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs, Paul Nuncio (pictured) informed parliament during a report he was giving about combating fraud and tax evasion - 2013.
According to the Secretary of State, with the deployment of these thousand tax inspectors it will be possible to meet the target of a 30% increase in the number of AT inspectors and he made it clear that this is a case of redeploying workers who already form part of the AT that were not inspectors, but are going to be.
Nuncio said that the fight against fraud and tax evasion in 2013 was "very positive" and that 85% of the measures defined in the current strategic plan have been achieved and that the collection percentage was at its highest rate ever.
The Secretary of State also said that these results were achieved with "fewer financial resources and less manpower," as the state has reduced the budget for the AT by 20% between 2010 and 2013 and that the number of workers at AT also decreased by about 1,000 employees during this period.
But the 2014 State Budget already provides for the hiring of 1,000 new tax inspectors by Nuncio’s department, a measure that he said in 2013 will start on January 1, 2014 and it is now September. Now we hear that these new people are redeployed existing staff taken off other essential jobs and which are not being replaced.
In Major Planning Options for 2015, the Government stated that "by the end of 2014, 1,000 new tax inspectors will be operating, which will enhance the inspection activities of the AT," ensuring that "when this is finished, about 30% of AT staff will be allocated to tax inspection." Nuncio had better get a move on.
A special unit, the Tax Compliance Committee, came into force in 2013 to monitor high-income earners and self-employed individuals.
The Ministry of Finance confirmed that its compliance teams can cross-check data and tax records, develop statistical data, analyse behaviour patterns and macroeconomic factors. They work closely with tax inspectors to quickly utilise evidence that a taxpayer intends to evade tax.
There seems little doubt that with stiffer penalties for evaders and an increased number of inspectors checking tax returns and other data, Nuncio is managing to run an efficient operation, however personally ruinous this may be for many whose tax affairs to date have been of a voluntary nature.
Nuncio is gulity of misleading the public by his rather too frequent announcements of swathes of tax inspectors being taken on as many, as we see above, are simply being redeployed from other vital duties and 2014 is nearly in its last quarter.
As a result of this mass redeployment, other areas of the Tax and Customs Authority's work inevitably will suffer.
