The battle that the president of Sporting football club is engaged in with the Tax Authority continues. Between February 27 and March 7th this year, Bruno de Carvalho filed four counter claims to four tax enforcement proceedings for a debt of almost €3.3 million.All of the lawsuits were filed with the Lisbon Tax Court, with the first three filed against the Lisbon Finance Department and the last one (filed on July 7th) filed against the Tax Justice Service (DSJT), the body that that oversees the execution of tax debts.
With these actions, Bruno de Carvalho intends to stop the taxman selling off his assets to recover what it claims is due.
The conflict has been going on for well over a decade. In September 2008, Bruno de Carvalho asked the tax authorities, as the manager of construction company Polibuild, to cancel tax lawsuits related to the 2004, 2005 and 2006, due to its delay in sending the bills.
According to a source close to the president of the club, the complaints all are linked to Polibuild - whenever he received a notification from the Tax Authority to pay taxes, Bruno de Carvalho made an official complaint.
Bruno de Carvalho left Polibuild - Construção Civil Lda, on December 2, 2009, and was replaced one day later by his mother, Ana Paula Araujo de Azevedo Gaspar de Carvalho.
His mother was in place until the beginning of 2013, when she resigned. In 2015, Polibuild became a sole proprietorship under Paulo Jorge de Figueiredo Vasco.
In 2009, the Treasury went to court in Lisbon to have three properties seized, all in Lisbon and all owned by Bruno de Carvalho.
This was a precautionary measure to ensure payment of the tax debts of Polibuild, of which the president of Sporting was a managing partner from 2001 to 2009 and, consequently, liable for debts run up when he was responsible.
The fact that Bruno de Carvalho has managed to string out these tax claims for up to 14 years says much for his legal team and not much at all for a Tax Authority that, when picking on lesser mortals, acts swiftly to grab what it is due, seizing property and seeing it auctioned off with dizzying swiftness.
The lamentable speed of the various courts and tribunals involved, indicates that the Portugal’s judicial system is ‘as normal’ – slow and ineffective.
