The Government approved a draft bill modifying the Fiscal Criminal Act 2014 on 11 June 2014, and submitted it for legislative consultations. The draft bill relating to changes the voluntary disclosure rules, and purposes to completion the practice of partial disclosures. Currently the rules permit taxpayers to benefit from a repeated voluntary disclosure regarding the same tax claim, if the taxpayer pays an additional penalty of 25% of the evaded amount.
The new draft bill instructs that:
- A taxpayer must carefully submit all relevant data on every instance of tax evasion in order to benefit from a voluntary disclosure and to avoid legal consequences.
- Further the draft bill introduces an additional penalty in cases where taxpayers only start a voluntary disclosure in connection with a tax audit or other investigations by the tax authorities. For example, in order to benefit still from a voluntary disclosure, taxpayers must pay an additional amount of 5% of the evaded tax.
- The additional penalty payment shall be 15% of the evaded tax if the amount of evaded tax exceeds €33,000, 20% if it exceeds €100,000 and 30% if it exceeds €250,000.
However, the intended changes shall be applicable after 30 September 2014.
