PN will file motion against ‘immoral’ tax amnesty legal notice

The Nationalist Party will file a parliamemtary motion for the repeal of a legal notice that cancels out tax arrears against property tax owed.

Through legal notice 419 of 2021, the Ministry of Finance published new taxation rules that will allow defaulting taxpayers to not pay any tax due on the transfer of property purchased before March 2021, against their arrears.

Finance shadow minister Mario de Marco said the party had reservations over the legal notice, and that the Opposition wanted to know whether any consultation was carried out by the government and whether an impact study has been conducted.

He referred to the resounding criticism of the amnesty from the Chamber of Commerce, which labelled the amnesty unfair, and the Malta Developers Association that said the government was creating an unlevel playing field.

“The government is obliged to promote tax morality and this legal notice throws fiscal morality out of the window,” De Marco said.

He said the government did not issue any guidance notes with the notice, to explain how the system would be implemented.

Nationalist MP Karol Aquilina said = the legal notice will introduce a system of tax forgiveness for those that have not paid their dues and ignores those that were compliant. “We understand that the ministry of Finance has a right to issue legal notices, but we wil ask for it to be completely scrapped,” Aquilina said.