The Socialist Party manifesto pledge, that Portugal’s workers again shall enjoy the full suite of public holidays, is to be carried out.
Portugal lost four holidays under the Pedro Passos Coelho coalition government which, citing ‘austerity,’ removed two religious and two secular days off to increase Portugal’s output.
The Left Bloc’s Catarina Martins successfully has called on former and current Tax Authority bosses to explain to parliament how Portugal’s richest families pay a modicum of tax while the rest of us stump up the full whack or risk losing our homes.
The fictional 'low taxes for rich bastards' scheme became fact late last year when former tax boss José Azevedo Pereira let slip during a TV interview that there indeed was a two tier system that enabled thousands of the richest families in the country proportionally to pay less tax than Portugal’s hard-working, but no so wealthy, contributors.
Novo Banco and Caixa Geral de Depósitos are to increase their annual fees for ATM cards, with Portugal’s remaining banks soon to following suit.
The price hike of around 20% has spurred consumer watchdog, Deco, to call for the imposition of a limit.
The UK has been found to be one of the top places in Europe for employment prospects.
The research, which ranks employment opportunities across the continent, also pointed to Estonia, Norway and Austria.
Helena Borges is taking the top job at the Tax and Customs Authority, Finanças to you and me, in a move that recognises her problem solving ability as much as her technical grasp of the multi-faceted department, its technology and internecine rivalries.
Certain problem areas need dealing with urgently including the damage done by the exposure of a VIP taxpayers’ list, the e-billing system that fails to take into account those sole traders without computer access or skills (35% of the population still has no access to the Internet), an internal power struggle that has affected the smooth running of the most important department of government, and collecting taxes from those who claim poverty, the list is a long one.
Moody's has downgraded Novo Banco in a rating cut to "poor quality and very high credit risk" that shows the recent Bank of Portugal move to recapitalise the loss-making bank has backfired.
Moody's believes that even the latest solvency situation at Novo Banco "can further worsen" even after the Bank of Portugal authorised the transfer of €1.985 billion in bonds from Novo Banco back to the bombed out BES.
Spain’s Podemos party said its MPs will forego many of the perks traditionally enjoyed by parliamentarians.
As well as limiting their salaries, privileges, such as housing benefits, taxi money, and some expenses, will be curtailed.
The National Entity for the Fuel Market (ENMC) is coming back to the Algarve to again try and explain why oil and gas exploration is such a good idea for the region.
The public hearing aims to clarify the issues surrounding oil exploration in the Algarve, on January 12, at the University of the Algarve's Escola Superior de Saúde.
