Ombudsman talks about taxpayers rights at CAAD conference

The Ombudsman took part in the conference organized by the Center for Administrative and Fiscal Arbitration (CAAD) on February 26 in Lisbon to commemorate its 10th anniversary. Maria Lúcia Amaral intervened in the debate on "The Frontier between tax collection and taxpayers’ guarantees" alongside Helena Borges, director general of the Tax Authority (TA).

After a peak of complaints that coincided with a greater computerization of TA and led the Ombudsman to order inspections, Maria Lúcia Amaral stated that "our perception is that in the last ten years the AT has improved the automatisms regarding tax executions" .

Citizens’ more systemic grievances about tax administration today are related to delays in hierarchical appeals, particularly in cases of IRS and property tax disputes.

The Ombudsman drew attention to the fact that she had in her hands an old problem concerning the IRS taxation system of income from previous years, the resolution of which depends on the legislator who, in response to a recent amendment recommendation considered it "inopportune".

"It is a regime that produces incomprehensible injustices and that will tend to penalize a growing number of people given the great growth of people’s complaints about delays in the processing of pensions by Social Security services," warned Maria Lúcia Amaral, signaling that this is an example of how the tax administration requires more of the taxpayers than of itself.