A taxpayer in Fafe, Braga has waiting for a year and a half for a refund from Finanças.
The man has been waiting since April 2013 for the return of €76,808 incorrectly demanded by the Tax Authority, and is fed up with waiting. So much so that he has instructed a lawyer to proceed with a criminal complaint.
According to his lawyer, the case goes back to 2009, when Finanças in Fafe sent the man a tax demand and threatened to seize his property of he did not pay up.
He was fortunate in that he had the money to pay the state, but this was all he could get his hands on, and immediately challenged the tax demand in court.
According to the lawyer Carlos Caneja Amorim, the judicial decision on the matter became final on the date of judgement and the tax office was to repay the man immediately.
Alleging 'computer problems' for a year and a half, the tax office has denied the man the use of his own money and has caused stress and worry.
"When a taxpayer is late by one day, he is charged fines, penalties and interest and is seen by the Portuguese State as a person to go after, but when the state loses court cases and is told to return taxpayers’ money collected illegally it creates mechanisms and undue delays,’ said the lawyer.
Amorim said today that his client, a 45-year old father of two young children, "is desperate over the situation" and has been forced to emigrate to Angola.
After the man successfully challenged the tax demand’s legality the Tax Authority appealed and lost, appealing again to the Supreme Administrative Court, which upheld the taxpayer's claim that clearly he was right and the state was wrong.
This should have been an end to it but the taxpayer now has been waiting for a cheque for 18 months.
Legally the state has nowhere else to go, yet it refuses to give the money back.
