I am glad that the Finance Ministry is not denying (TMID, 6 March) that the VAT paid on car registration is a tax on tax. It had done so previously. But I don’t know why it felt the need to make the point, seeing I had not said or implied in my letter of 4 March that a tax on tax is illegal. VAT on car registration may have been – we have still to see about that – but perhaps not necessarily because it was a tax on tax.

Charging a tax on a tax may be legal, but does the ministry know anyone who likes paying it? I don’t, that is why I will be subscribing to the Labour Party’s legal case against the VAT on car registration.

I believe the Prime Minister has said that should the government be made to pay back the e50 million the government raked in from the VAT on car registration since 2004 – if the tax is declared to have been illegal – it would bankrupt Malta, so the refunds should not be made.

That is a rather awkward argument, coming from a qualified lawyer. Is Lawrence Gonzi telling the courts to let burglars and thieves, and overcharging supermarkets, to keep their ill-gotten gains if they plead that paying back what they had stolen would impoverish them?

And anyway, his argument does not hold water. Malta’s finances are considered sound, so the government says, though there is a three billion euro debt hanging over our heads.

If our finances are sound, with all that debt on the books, how can Malta go bankrupt if it were made to pay just e50 million in tax that had been illegally imposed (if a court so decides)? e50 million is just teeth detritus when compared to three billion.

Roger Mifsud

Rabat