Bill to amend the Revenue Acts
Bill 142 proposes to amend various Revenue Acts – the Social Security Act, the Duty on Documents & Transfers Act, the Income Tax Management Act and the VAT Act – as well as the Various Laws relating to the Proceeds of Crime (Amendment) Act and the Criminal Code.
The declared objective of the Bill is to amend the above laws with a view to “strengthening the investigative tools and powers and the options for settlement of the Commissioner for Tax and Customs in the fight against fiscal evasion, to establish a statutory framework for the settlement of fiscal liabilities enhancing the mechanisms for the recovery of outstanding dues thereby supporting the State’s broader efforts to ensure effectiveness in revenue collection and to deter financial crime.”
The Bill proposes to introduce, in each of the relevant tax acts, a ‘special mechanism for out of court settlements’ of disputes with the MTCA by way of a special agreement between the taxpayer and the Commissioner for Tax & Customs, involving additional penalties comparable to the amounts which would be payable as fines in criminal proceedings involving financial crime. These will be over and above the administrative penalties which are imposed by the provisions of the various revenue Acts. Such agreement would extinguish the criminal liability of the taxpayer for any breach against this Act and for any connected breach in respect of the acts in relation to which the agreement has been entered.
In addition new criminal offences around the fraudulent breach of agreements with a Government department and on the breach of such agreements without just cause are being proposed.