GIBRALTAR
(Gibraltar Chronicle / F. Oliva) Chief Minister Peter Caruana has said the Government will be introducing “a whole panoply of measures” designed to bring about a greater climate of compliance and policing of compliance across all areas of taxation in Gibraltar. Mr Caruana’s comment was prompted by questions from Opposition member Gilbert Licudi which revealed that no fines had been issued to employers in the transport industry for using illegal labour since 2006.>
Mr Caruana said the Government was not satisfied with Gibraltar’s historically benign approach to taxation, observing that there was now an “emerging consensus” among social partners – traders, unions and Government – for “a more structured and organised approach,” in order for this to be tightened to ensure everyone paid their dues so that at the same time, everybody else could pay less in taxation.
Mr Licudi said the Opposition agreed there should be compliance across all sectors of the economy and that the lack of fines suggested insufficient effort or resources to achieve this. He said this approach had resulted in an unfair system where employers were getting away with employing illegal labour and not paying their dues.
The Chief Minister said tax payers perceived the existing “benign non-aggressive enforcement” was insufficient incentive for those so minded not to comply, and that the Principal Auditor had been flagging up issues of this sort for some time. Resourcing of enforcement mechanisms and how these are to operate will also be an element in the Government approach.
He said the situation had changed and there were several factors that had given greater impetus to the matter. The recent failure of construction companies and realisation that measures needed to be taken to prevent this from happening again; the Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Small Business, trade unions and Government were now aligned and supporting the same focussed approach; the era of lower taxation that Gibraltar was embracing, means the Government has the fiscal need to tighten up tax evasion and avoidance.
Mr Caruana declared the Government was determined to move in this direction and stated that there will be consequences for employers who engage consciously in “serial non-compliance” of tax obligations, including personal and criminal liabilities, name and shame approach, not being able to resume business activities in future and other deterrents.
(Gibraltar Chronicle / F. Oliva) Chief Minister Peter Caruana has said the Government will be introducing “a whole panoply of measures” designed to bring about a greater climate of compliance and policing of compliance across all areas of taxation in Gibraltar. Mr Caruana’s comment was prompted by questions from Opposition member Gilbert Licudi which revealed that no fines had been issued to employers in the transport industry for using illegal labour since 2006.>
Mr Caruana said the Government was not satisfied with Gibraltar’s historically benign approach to taxation, observing that there was now an “emerging consensus” among social partners – traders, unions and Government – for “a more structured and organised approach,” in order for this to be tightened to ensure everyone paid their dues so that at the same time, everybody else could pay less in taxation.
Mr Licudi said the Opposition agreed there should be compliance across all sectors of the economy and that the lack of fines suggested insufficient effort or resources to achieve this. He said this approach had resulted in an unfair system where employers were getting away with employing illegal labour and not paying their dues.
The Chief Minister said tax payers perceived the existing “benign non-aggressive enforcement” was insufficient incentive for those so minded not to comply, and that the Principal Auditor had been flagging up issues of this sort for some time. Resourcing of enforcement mechanisms and how these are to operate will also be an element in the Government approach.
He said the situation had changed and there were several factors that had given greater impetus to the matter. The recent failure of construction companies and realisation that measures needed to be taken to prevent this from happening again; the Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Small Business, trade unions and Government were now aligned and supporting the same focussed approach; the era of lower taxation that Gibraltar was embracing, means the Government has the fiscal need to tighten up tax evasion and avoidance.
Mr Caruana declared the Government was determined to move in this direction and stated that there will be consequences for employers who engage consciously in “serial non-compliance” of tax obligations, including personal and criminal liabilities, name and shame approach, not being able to resume business activities in future and other deterrents.
No comments:
Post a Comment