Portugal's Tax Authority is swift enough when demanding taxes from citizens, whether those demands are justified or not.
The ‘pay now and argue later’ system has served the government well for decades but taxpayers have had enough. Threatened with 'coercive collection' of money demanded is sufficient for anyone that has the cash, or can borrow it, to pay up within the 30 day deadline.
One 76-year-old has reason to be more annoyed than most people who have been stiffed by the State's unilateral judgement that a tax debt is due, whether correct or not.
Delfim Almeida is disgusted with the way the State treats many of Portugal’s citizens who have found themselves in this tax trap.
The retired builder from São Pedro do Sul, Viseu, so far has spent 10 years waiting for Finanças to return the money it had demanded unjustly and forced him to pay up or have his assest seized.
In 1998, Sr Almeida was notified by the taxman to pay an additional IRS settlement of almost €5,000 which he had to cough up there and then. He immediately registered a complaint that the tax demanded was not justifiableand that he did not owe it.
First, Almeida complained to Finanças, which is hardly likely to reverse its own decision; secondly he took the taxman to court.
Deft Tax Authority lawyers ensured the case dragged on for as long as possible. They did a good job as the process kicked around the local court system for more than a decade until, in 2014, the Viseu Administrative and Fiscal Court said that Almeida had not owed the money at all and that it should pay Almeida back, plus interest.
Financas simply ignored the court's decision. So Almeida was forced to start a new court case, an execution of judgment, and again was successful as the court condemned the Tax Authority and said that within 30 days it must return the tax charged plus interest.
"The sum now had grown to €10,000," said Adriano Pereira, Delfim Almeida’s lawyer, adding that the 30 day deadline has been passed and there was still no sign of the money, a situation that the lawyer described as "shameful and regrettable."
The legal solution now is to complain that the State has committed a crime; "We will check with the State prosecutor to investigate the crime of ‘denial of justice’ and identify the person who by omission or action, has not complied with the judgment - the Tax Authority, said the lawyer.
Ten years certainly is not a record but the normal period for citizens to get their money back is measured in years, not months, with many unable to afford lengthy court proceedures and many more dying before settlement.
This system needs changing; the State is not always right and depriving citizens of their money, with menaces, is not a civilized way of carrying on - compounded by the aggravation and despair of having to wait years for the return of funds.
