Portugal’s Tax Authority said today that national banks will be required to report bank account balances, but only those containing over €50,000.
This new information was released by the Ministry of Finance which reckons that anyone with less than €50,000 is unlikely to be involved in tax evasion.
This bank account disclosure issue has caused controversy with the National Data Protection Commission stating on August 17th that that government plan to access each and every bank account held by anyone in Portugal “shook banking secrecy protocols” and was an “excessive restriction of fundamental rights and the protection of a private life” which violated the Portuguese constitution.
The Minister of Finance commented that, “access to bank accounts is justified by the international fight against tax evasion, through the exchange of information with tax authorities in other countries.”
In response to the National Data Protection Commission’s opinion, the government said the plan to access all bank accounts, starting in 2017, was a consequence of the binding international commitments with Europe and the US assumed by the Portuguese State.
The outcry, along with the possibility of a legal challenge to the new decree, has led to the planned blanket access to bank accounts being revised with the ‘only over €50,000’ proviso.
This new limit, according to the Ministry of Finance, was “already a possibility allowed for in the original plan.”
See also: 'Government plan to access citizens' bank accounts is 'unconstitutional'
