A petition has been launched by Portugal’s STI union of tax employees demanding an end to the country’s fiscal secrecy.
With €2.3 million said to be leaving Portugal every day for offshore tax havens, revelations in the 11.5 million leaked documents known as the Panama Papers have mobilised “around 30 names from the world of politics, taxation and economics” to sign the document that will now set out to get the requisite 4000 signatures for discussion in parliament, reports Correio da Manhã.
The Panama Papers – and the 244 national companies, 23 ‘private clients’, 34 beneficiaries and 255 Portuguese shareholders implicated in them – show there is an “enormous scheme” within this country that “hides earnings” and “is very often sponsored” by Portuguese banks, president of STI Paulo Ralha has told the paper.
“We have concrete examples where banks have advised clients to remove their money because they are about to have their accounts seized by the tax authority”, he said – stressing it is time that everyday working people realised the AT tax authority has actually spent €5 million to ensure its workers cannot get access to the details of the country’s rich and famous, among them Portugal’s political powermakers.
But is time at last up for Portugal’s “laughing millionaires” who have already been denounced for paying 500 times less than they should into the country’s tax system?
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