Gibraltar Tax Department Urged To Get Tough On Tax Evasion
Gibraltar's tax department has been told by the Principal Auditor to harden
its stance against tax evasion by introducing tougher penalties and carrying
out more thorough investigations into alleged evasion backed up by stronger
legal remedies, the Gibraltar Chronicle reports. According to the Principal Auditor's report, the Government’s global
arrears total over GBP50 million of which some GBP31 million are income tax
and corporation tax arrears. The report also highlighted the tax department's apparent inability to deal
with tax avoidance among high income self-employed professionals, and illustrated
one case where a partner in an accountancy firm declared income of around GBP20,000,
which, the Chronicle stated, was "accepted without question." Another example of the tax department's lax controls was seen in the case of
the declaration by one individual of a GBP1 million dividend which slipped through
the net as a result of the corporate section failing to pass on appropriate
paperwork to the self-employed section. The Auditor also pointed out that no investigations have been carried out since
April 1999, a situation which the tax department has blamed on insufficient
numbers of staff. The report suggests that the Commissioner should consider recommending to Government
the setting of a legal time limit for the submission of accounts with penalties
for failure to present these on time. .
|
|
IMPORTANT NOTICE: TAX-NEWS.COM has taken reasonable care in sourcing and presenting the information contained on this site, but accepts no responsibility for any financial or other loss or damage that may result from its use. In particular, users of the site are advised to take appropriate professional advice before committing themselves to involvement in offshore jurisdictions, offshore trusts or offshore investments. All materials on this site copyright TAX-NEWS.COM 1999 to 2007. Contact us for further information.