Tax authorities ready to pounce
With income returns in, the revenue agency knows more than ever about taxpayers’ finances
The final deadline for filing tax returns, twice extended, expires Tuesday, and tax authorities are ready to begin the most extended checks ever on the veracity of taxpayers’ statements.
New online systems have allowed the independent public revenue authority to possess data about insurance contracts, cost of hospital treatments, school fees and many other activities. It will also give priority to checking the activities of bank accounts with a balance of over €100,000 and financial portfolios valued at over €200,000.
The authorities are interested in whether all these amounts have been declared or the product of money laundering.
The tax authorities already have the capacity to determine whether spending matches income and in case of excess tax it. But there are cases that must be further investigated to determine where the money has come from. It is also quite common for taxpayers to “forget” declaring income earned or deposited abroad.
The independent authority has complete information on bank accounts that, cumulatively, showed activity amounting to over €100,000. They can check money transfers, deposits and withdrawals, by any means and transfers to and from third persons.
The same detailed information is known about portfolios, both for this and past years. As already said, tax authorities are interested, initially, in financial portfolios worth over €200,000, although digging deeper into smaller once will eventually happen. Authorities also know, naturally, about interest earned and the tax on it.
They also possess data about dividends, money deposited with financial institutions to pay off all types of loans (mortgages, consumer), including interest, fees for late loan payments and any other relevant information.
Authorities have access to all data about insurance contracts of all types: life, death, personal accident and illness. Related to that, they know about how much you have spent in hospitals and other health facilities.
Everyone’s spending on school fees and even on cellphone bills is also in the hands of the tax people. It remains to be seen how much extra revenue will be discovered.
