Portugal’s Chartered Accountants body has applied in court for an extension of tax submission deadlines due to ‘recurrent problems’ with the Finanças website.
The injunction was lodged today in the Tax Court of Lisbon in the face of the government's view that ‘statistics show’ that the Finanças web portal is operational.
Website problems which have led to a widespread inability for individuals and accountants to fill in online tax submissions before the deadline earlier led to an exasperated Order of Chartered Accountants (OTOC) to write Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho and Finance Minister Maria Luís Albuquerque, to no avail.
The injunction states that "recurrent problems encountered" in the Finanças portal have prevented Chartered Accountants fulfilling their tax obligations to their clients.
The decision to lodge the injunction comes a week after the head of the OTOC, António Domingues de Azevedo, wrote to the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister, parliamentary groups and the Ombudsman warning of the difficulties of operating the Finanças web portal and asking the Government to open an urgent inquiry into the operation of the site.
The overwhelming majority of tax submissions are entered by accountants but it is not just the year end submissions for clients that have been affected by the slow, inefficient service, there are VAT returns, monthly and quarterly IRS returns and a host of professional and corporate submissions that are now overdue and subject to fines for late filing.
The letter to the PM dated 7 May outlined the OTOC’s fears of "the repetition of recent scenarios which have generated anxieties, this injustice is undeserved for every citizen, especially for those who have a statutory obligation to file on time, as is the case of Chartered Accountants.”
Domingos de Azevedo now has been joined by opposition parties in accusing the Ministry of Finance of not solving the problem, saying that, Paulo Nuncio, the "Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs has treated this subject with an absolute disregard for the dignity rights of Chartered Accountants."
Yet today the Ministry said there is no problem and the website is running normally, which rather avoids the point that many accountants and individuals were prevented from filing on time before a deadline which was extended once, but only by a couple of days.
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ED has received several complaints from individuals who have tried and failed to access the Finanças website to enter their annual returns. emails have remained unanswered in a situation that can be summaried as a failure by the State to enable its citizens to fulfill their tax obligations, and taxpayers will be fined for not having done so. If you are in this situation, please email ed@algarvedailynews.com with a summary of the steps yopu have taken.
