Minister for Finance Edward Scicluna today announced the formation of a Joint Enforcement Task Force (JET) which he said will bolster the government’s efforts at combating the black economy.
Speaking during a press conference, Minister Scicluna explained that through JET, the government will channel the resources and technical knowhow of the Income Tax Department, VAT Department and Tax Compliant Unit to various degrees in order to prevent, detect, investigate, and prosecute offences related to unfair business competition and the avoidance and evasion of Income Tax, VAT, National Insurance and Excise Tax in order to uphold the country’s licensing, regulatory and tax laws.
“JET will in no way replace any of these entities and departments,” said Minister Scicluna, “it will serve as a centre of intelligence and a central coordination unit supporting increased cooperation between these departments and entities, as well as facilitating the sharing of information between them.” He also confirmed that JET will be enabled to spearhead its own risk assessments and investigations.
JET will be recruiting a core team of multidisciplinary professionals in the field of gathering of intelligence, risk analysis, inspections and investigations. The core team will be supported by staff from the various entities and departments who will be retrained for this purpose.
Chamber welcomes tax evasion unit
In a statement, the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry said it welcomes the news of the setting up of a long overdue unit that will target tax evasion through a joint effort between the Inland Revenue, the VAT Department and Customs.
The Malta Chamber said it “has been extremely vociferous in the past on this subject, as it consistently argued that tax evasion deprived the state of substantial funds that could be used better, and it placed honest businesses at a disadvantage.
“The Malta Chamber has always called for a competitive and liberalised environment, fairly and equitably regulated through market surveillance. Ultimately, the Chamber argued, this would result in upholding a competitive level playing field for all the business community.
“The Chamber made its arguments in all fora possible, including Parliament where it presented its researched and well-reasoned arguments to the Committee for Economic and Financial Affairs. The Chamber is pleased that the concerned authorities have understood the importance of the Chamber’s arguments and have set up a unit that will target tax evasion.
“For this reason, the Chamber welcomes this development and offers Government all the help at its disposal for this project to be a successful one.”