The Miranda Land Movement today called on the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) to take the necessary steps to ensure that the Tax Authority settles the taxes due, in time to avoid discussions about the expiry of the right to assessment.
“We publicly request that the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) and the PGR, within the scope of their powers, take the necessary steps to ensure that the Tax Authority (AT) settles the taxes due, in time to avoid discussions about the expiry of the right to the assessment, which will only serve the concessionaires and the ongoing strategy to get them out of paying what they legally owe,” reads an open letter typed to the PGR, to which Lusa had access today.
According to the same letter, the Cultural Movement of Terra de Miranda (MCTM) is convinced that “at the end of the year, if nothing is done, the right to pay the taxes due on the sale of the dams will expire: Stamp Duty, IMT and IRC, which will only serve the concessionaires and their ongoing strategy of getting out of paying what they legally owe”.
“For almost three years, we have known that a criminal investigation has been underway, carried out by the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP), for indications that a crime of aggravated tax fraud has been committed,” he said.
The MCTM also adds that: “apologizing for the pendency of the criminal investigation, the Director General of the AT stated in a parliamentary hearing that she will not make the assessment of taxes due until it is concluded.”
“Under the terms of the law, the assessment of taxes does not depend on a criminal investigation, and the AT has all the conditions to carry it out. In cases of tax crime, the law establishes, on the contrary, that the assessment of the tax due is a prerequisite for the crime,” the MCTM points out in the open letter.
According to this civic movement, “until now, the AT has only assessed IMI on dams after persistent denunciation of its inaction by this movement and the municipalities, and even then it has done so illegally and with serious violations of the law, forced by three orders from the Secretary of State who was in charge of it, which it successively violated.”
On April 29, the MCTM called on the government to settle the taxes owed on the dam deal, warning that the 2020 IMI and 100 million euros in stamp duty could lapse.
The movement assures that it is up to the government, as the apex body of the executive power, to guarantee the payment of taxes, adding that this is a legal obligation and not an option.
The movement also recalled that 18 years have passed since a binding opinion from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) established that dams should pay IMI.
At the beginning of November, the movement had already accused the heads of the AT and the Portuguese Environment Agency of wanting to benefit EDP in the sale of dams, and in mid-October it had already called for the resignation of the director-general of the AT, Helena Borges.
The tax aspect of dams jumped onto the media agenda following EDP’s sale of six dams in Trás-os-Montes (Miranda do Douro, Picote, Bemposta, Baixo Sabor, Feiticeiro and Tua) for 2.2 billion euros to a consortium led by Engie.
