Ministry of Finance investigating Forum member allegations on pleasure cruises’ ‘blatant’ tax evasion

In the wake of a report by FORUM general secretary Paul Pace published in this newspaper last Sunday and which talked about a number of pleasure cruise owners who failed to issue any form of fiscal receipt to customers using their services, the Ministry of Finance said that it was investigating the matter. 

According to Pace, "when I as secretary general of FORUM, alongside John Bencini, president of the same confederation of Maltese Trade Unions, had raised the issue of tax evasion during one of the MCESD meetings, on the importance that such an issue should be addressed as it was corroding our economy", the reply he got from Minister of Finance Tonio Fenech's permanent secretary was that "tax evasion is negligible on the Maltese islands and has no impact on the economy". 

When contacted by MaltaToday and asked whether the ministry was looking into Pace's allegations, Communications Officer for the Ministry of Finance Robert Attard said that the matter was in fact being investigated, as are all other reports that the VAT Department receives on a daily basis from any person wishing to launch a report.

Attard also added that "it is pertinent to point out that any person reporting cases of alleged evasion of VAT to the VAT Department are not required to furnish their personal details and may remain anonymous if they so wish".

When asked about what was being done to curtail this abuse, Attard said that it would not be prudent to go public with this information as this could undermine the VAT Department's efforts to control abuse, while it would also give the abusers an edge, who would then take steps to beat these measures.  

"Moreover, the VAT Department's control and enforcement strategy is not entirely dependent on site inspections, which admittedly impact most on public perception, as other investigative control tools are at its disposal."

While in Gozo, Pace used the services of Xlendi Pleasure Cruises twice and when he personally requested a VAT receipt, he was laughed at and was told that "in Gozo no VAT receipts existed". 

Pace said that such words came from the owner himself, and that this "could be just the tip of the iceberg" since employees of other pleasure cruises offering the same services were failing to issue receipts to tourists while in Comino as well. Pace also invited the VAT Department to summon him to court to give evidence against the owner of Xlendi Pleasure Cruises in the event the department decided to proceed against him, referring to the Xlendi Pleasure Cruises's reaction to his request for a fiscal receipt as "unacceptable".