In an alternative state lottery, Portugal’s government has paid out over half a million euros to pensioners who had already died.
In many cases the deaths had been correctly recorded in the computer systems yet the payments continued as nobody had thought to suspend them.
Portugal’s tax department is €20 million a year out of pocket due to illegal property lettings to tourists.
If those property owners who rent their homes to tourists were to pay taxes, Portugal’s Inland Revenue would collect about €20 million a year according to early reports and projections using data collected by undercover inspectors who already are on the prowl.
Vítor Augusto Brinquete Bento, the current president of the ATM network company SIBS, is odds-on to become the new Chief Executive of troubled bank BES whose shares today rallied 8% on the news.
Bento, an economist and former government advisor, is a name that the Bank of Portugal has approved to run BES, a bank that is lurching from revelation to revelation in the dying days of Chief Executive Ricardo Salgado’s tenure.
In the BPN/Homeland fraud case, Pedro Lima’s lawyer has sought his client’ acquittal in the case and is highly critical that charges were brought in the first place.
Duarte Lima’s son, Pedro, is accused alongside his father and others in the Homeland case which relates to the acquisition of land in Oeiras with money withdrawn from BPN.
Amazon has attracted the eyes of the European Commission officials concerned about tax.
Competition commission officials in Brussels have asked Luxembourg to provide documents on Amazon’s company tax compliance.
The National Road Safety Authority reported that in addition to the 45 dead, there have been 176 serious injuries and 1,479 minor injuries between 2009 and 2013 as a reult of quad bike accidents.
Of the dead, 41 were driving the vehicle at the time of the accident and the others were passengers.
The worsening economic situation in France has prompted an IMF warning of a “negative spiral of low growth and falling inflation”.
As it is, the country could well fall back into recession. The IMF slashed its growth forecast this year from 1% to 0.7%, pointing out the risk of a stalled recovery which could take years to overcome.
Apprenticeships in England are being taken up by an increasing number of teenagers.
In the last 12 months there has been a 15% increase in the number of 16 and 17-year-olds getting apprenticeships straight from school.
