Taxpayers question dues, fines
Two in five complaints examined end up with vindication of individuals and businesses
An ever-growing number of taxpayers and businesses are demanding the cancellation of tax dues or fines through complaints submitted to the Directorate for Arbitration of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR). On Friday, meanwhile, the tax administration admitted a technical error in the clearance of tax statements that has led to extra dues for several freelance professionals this year.
According to IAPR data, the number of complaints submitted over the first five months of the year amounted to 5,436, with the directorate examining 3,202 of them and accepting 1,289 of them partly or wholly as fair. Another 1,845 were rejected, 19 taxpayers withdrew and the rest were rejected without being examined. This means that 40.26% of the complaints examined were accepted and the taxpayers vindicated.
In the meantime, the IAPR may have issued thousands of tax clearance documents with errors, and accountants are now being invited to submit amending declarations for the necessary corrections to be implemented.
The problem stemmed from the uploading on the Taxis system of the tax amounts deducted. During the transfer of data the system would not recognize the figures properly, leading to their erroneous pre-filling on the relevant code numbers on the E1 form and therefore to the issue of wrong tax clearance slips.
It was the accountants who noticed the error, and after they stopped submitting declarations they informed the IAPR for the system to undergo the necessary corrections. Although the issue was resolved last night, here remains an issue with the declarations already processed. The IAPR said that the freelance professionals and others concerned will be sent messages about the amounts mistakenly transferred onto their declarations; they will use them to upload amending declarations that will be considered in time and will not incur a fine.
Nevertheless it is possible that in certain cases where the tax has already been paid the IAPR will have to perform some offsetting with other dues.
