In a bizarre twist in the VIP Taxpayer List case, the Finance Minister Maria Luís Albuquerque has ordered an inquiry into something that she says does not exist.
The General Inspectorate of Finance has been sent on a hunt to look for a list of taxpayers whose access by tax office staff triggers an alert and has seen many workers hauled in for questioning by management.
The Ministry of Finance said this afternoon that, following news reports in the last few days, it had "today asked the General Inspectorate of Finance to open an investigation into the alleged existence of a list of taxpayers at the Tax Authority whose access is allegedly restricted."
This comes shortly after a terse denial from the Ministry of Finance, via the Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs, that any such list existed and a threat to sue Visão, the publication that first ran the story.
According to today’s statement sent by Maria Luís Albuquerque, the new inquiry aims to discover the facts surrounding the VIP Taxpayers List, a list which five days ago, according to her, did not exist
The list is said to contain the names of people in the media, politics, finance and business and was even referred to during two tax office worker training sessions with hundreds of staff.
The chairman of the Tax Workers Union Paulo Ralha says the VIP Taxpayers List exists, something that the Government and the Tax Authority deny. Will an investigation by the Tax Inspectorate uncover the truth or is this an internal investigation which will discover nothing?
"There is no doubt that the list exists," said Paulo Ralha last week, explaining that "if a worker accesses certain taxpayers’ records an alarm is triggered and the person making the access is notified and has to justify the enquiry."
If the outcome is that the list does exist, heads will have to roll as a two tier tax system where staff are intimidated into staying clear of important people’s tax records contravenes so many laws and protocols that it would be impossible to justify.
For the original report, see:
http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/5020-government-denies-existence-of-secret-vip-taxpayer-list
