More power to the taxman

Apparently the tax inspectors will have even more power to fight evasion from 2006. That could be a waste of everybody's time.

Over the last couple of years, the tax offices have issued thousands of assessments dating back years, which they are unable to collect. Some because the assessments were already outside the legal time limit when they were raised. Others due to incompatibility between computer systems - Contribuição Autárquica and IMI are separate systems, requiring duplicate introduction of data by overstretched staff.

The overall effect is to clog the tax offices with taxpayers who wait hours to be told that their assessments will, indeed, be cancelled, one day. Meanwhile, many innocent taxpayers are prevented from carrying on their business due to the services' inability to process cancellations.

Those who praise the performance of Paulo Macedo in beefing up the taxman's powers have clearly never tried to contest an assessment, in person, at a tax office.