Labour opens front over Azzopardi tax returns, MP says delays down to marital separation

Labour has opened a new front on Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, taking him to task for not having filed a tax return for his 2018 income.

The income tax assessments were requested by various newsrooms under the Income Tax Management Act, which allows registered editors to obtain the information from the Speaker of the House.

Labour MP Glenn Bedingfield branded Azzopardi, a key Nationalist critic of the Labour government, a “false and hypocritical MP” who has broke the law through a “condemnable” omission to file his tax returns.

“Not one day passes with Azzopardi not attacking somebody: for him, everyone is corrupt or a thief, except himself. Today we know, he is a false MP… he has never taken responsibility for his lack of political accountability on the Lowenbrau, Fekruna, HSBC sites and encroachment permits as parliamentary secretary for lands.”

In a comment to MaltaToday on Thursday evening, Azzopardi said he had failed to filed his tax returns on time due to his marital separation and legal problems that come with the process. “This made it impossible for me to file my returns on time.”

Azzopardi however said that in January 2021 he had personally presented his returns of 2018 and 2019, but that the Tax Commissioner was still processing the separate assessments as required in marital separation proceedings. “Tax Commissioner Marvin Gaerty informed the Clerk of the House as well as [Labour’s] One News, which they obviously omitted… it is truly vile that One News manipulate a personal problem I have, and which thousands of Maltese pass through, to tarnish me. It was certainly a way of deviating public attention from the fiasco that was Robert Abela’s COVID-19 press conference.”