Bernard Grech fails to explain how he settled tax dues, admits he could have been more careful

PN leadership contender Bernard Grech makes a half-hearted attempt to allay concerns over his tax situation by admitting he could have been more careful and blames the media storm on the government

Bernard Grech
Bernard Grech

Bernard Grech admits he could have been more careful on his tax situation but fails to explain how he settled dues running into thousands of euros in one go.

In an attempt to stymie the growing concern over his tax situation, the Nationalist Party leadership contender said in a Facebook post this afternoon that he agreed that as a politician the standards by which he should be judged are higher.

But in his video comment in which he laid the blame on government for what he described as “an attack” on his credibility, Grech failed to say when he settled his outstanding payments with the tax authorities, why he had failed to pay taxes in the first place (in two separate periods) and why he failed to settle VAT payments in a timely manner between 2014 and 2019.

MESSAĠĠ MINN BERNARD GRECH

Dejjem emmint li fil-politika hemm riga ogħla. Dan hu dak li rrid inwettaq jien.

Posted by Bernard Grech on Monday, 7 September 2020

MaltaToday on Sunday reported that Grech had an outstanding income tax balance of more than €33,000, apart from VAT dues that ran into thousands.

READ ALSO: PN leadership candidate Bernard Grech has a history of unpaid taxes

It remains unclear how Grech managed to settle all these dues, as he claims, over the past few weeks when his average annual declared income to the VAT department for the years 2014-2019 was €32,600.

Times of Malta reported earlier today that Grech sent his representative to the tax department on Monday morning to settle an outstanding balance of almost €30,000, believed to be penalties and interest owed, which were subject to contestation.

In his video blog, Grech simply said that he had also dropped litigation, as was his right, to contest the penalties and interest and settled the due amount not to be shackled by the issue.

Only last week, Grech launched a crowd funding campaign with the aim to raise €50,000 for his leadership election campaign.

Until this afternoon, the campaign raised €46,760 from 1,306 anonymous donors.

Grech has so far not explained the source of funds through which he settled his outstanding tax bills.

Grech is facing incumbent Adrian Delia in a race for the PN leadership.

Both candidates are currently facing a financial due diligence exercise by an expert team appointed by the party.