More Power to the Taxman

Who came up with the idea of giving the Portuguese tax authorities automatic access to bank records for the family members of suspected tax fraudsters? It's unbelievable!

Consider the well publicised IT errors that keep on cropping up: assessments for years where liability has lapsed, tax payments that do not get set off against the respective assessment, inspection staff completely devoid of any reasoning capacity, only worried about meeting their quota of inspections. It's easy for just about anybody to fall foul of such errors.

So if my company is inspected and incorrectly assessed for extra tax, which we claim against, leaving a file open (subject to somebody at the tax office remembering to register the claim), any of my family members can have their bank accounts inspected!

Not even the judiciary has such sweeping powers, but that would likely be inconvenient for a large number of eminent politicians.

So once again the little guy gets squeezed while the country rots from the top down...

Planning and Politics

Manuel Pinho is the surprised minister, always expressing surprise at what goes on around him and with an extraordinary talent for opening his mouth and inserting his foot.

This weekend we have seen him complaining that the investigation into corruption in the Freeport planning approval process is politically motivated. I didn't hear him complaining when the media guns were pointed at members of the opposition. I was also surprised that he risked talking about anything located south of the river, but we all know he's thick (skinned).

Unfortunately, planning approval is a process so rife with corruption, that any commercial project approved in less than five years must have involved backhanders. But even then, the most important part of any commercial planning approval process is usually that it should bring political benefits to the planners who approve it. That doesn't appear to have been the case at Freeport, where large sums changed hands to allow construction of an Outlet that nobody wants, in the wrong place.

Nevertheless, I'm optimistic for the building industry in this triple election year, where sitting mayors will need to deliver on the promises made four years ago. Of course, they run the risk of being called to account in four or eight years' time, but that's politics!

Blameless

Everybody knows that corruption is rife in Portugal. Now the President of the Lawyers Association has gone on the record to say so, to be promptly called by the Attorney General to clarify his statement.

Fortunately Jose Socrates has cleared the air by stating categorically that the members of his government are not involved. So it must only be all other parties, prior governments and levels of the State structure that are corrupt (I dare not use the word "bent"). That's a relief!