Taxman owed €1.2 billion from individuals and companies

Malta’s taxman is owed just under €1.2 billion in uncollected taxes from individuals and companies, data tabled in parliament shows.

Responding to a series of parliamentary questions from PN MP Graham Bencini, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana shed light on the nature of Malta’s uncollected taxes. 

Caruana revealed that €495,196,552 in taxes is still uncollected from individuals, while a whopping €701,123,108 is still awaiting collection from companies.

The finance minister gave a further breakdown of some of the uncollected tax revenue, explaining that €212,874,305 are subject to payment plans, while just €2,304,900 in uncollected taxes are contested or subject to appeals. 

From the uncollected €1.2 billion in taxes, €412,899,776 is considered recoupable, suggesting that more than half of the due taxes cannot be collected.

Responding to another parliamentary question from Bencini, Caruana further broke down the share of uncollected taxes. 

The vast majority of individuals and companies who have uncollected taxes owe between €100,001 and €500,000. 

Meanwhile, 27 individuals and 89 companies owe between €500,001 and €1 million. Nine persons and 43 companies owe anywhere between €1 million and €5 million. 

The finance minister said that there are three companies who owe more than €5 million.

The response to the parliamentary questions come shortly after Caruana warned a few hundred suspected tax dodgers that they will be receiving letters requesting them to explain dubious income declarations. This, Caruana announced was possible due to government's AI-powered system which is capable of scanning inconceivable amounts of data in short periods of time.