Reduced fines for those who comply. What changes? Payment only, no fees

A breath of fresh air awaits taxpayers as they return from the holidays. From September 1, the tax authorities will be less aggressive. In fact, the anti-penalty shield will come into effect next month. Furthermore, the amounts of fines for those who commit violations after September 1 will also be reduced. The upcoming changes are part of the package of changes envisaged by the tax reform. More specifically, Decree-Law No. 87/2024 implementing the tax mandate on the bases and criteria for the review of the tax, administrative and criminal sanctions system stipulates that taxpayers who, from September 1, comply with tax circulars within sixty days of their publication, by submitting the supplementary declaration and paying the tax due, will not be subject to penalties.

Purpose

Thus, decriminalization opens the door to serious repentance and the release of penalties for so-called involuntary violations, i.e. those violations resulting from different interpretations by taxpayers compared to those submitted with standard documents – circulars, opinions, requests – by the revenue agency. And again. The rule, as the law states, “operates provided that the theoretical violation committed by the taxpayer is contingent on objective circumstances of uncertainty regarding the scope and scope of application of the tax law”. Finally, the taxpayer’s behavior will become incorrect only after the tax interpretation is made public through the publication of the practice document, which, as we mentioned, may be just a circular.

Once the document is published, the 60-day period begins during which the taxpayer must comply with the tax authorities. The other big news arriving in September, which taxpayers are eagerly awaiting, concerns the re-adjustment of tax penalties, which as of September 1 have become more moderate for offenders.

Mechanism

However, the new sanctions will only apply to violations committed from September 1st onwards, while for those dating back to earlier, the old tariffs, which are certainly less favourable to the offenders, remain in force. Thus begins a transition period of about five years. In the meantime, the IRS is preparing to close the umbrella. The summer truce officially ends on September 4th, which saw the cessation of communications and files, although it must be said that this year the truce was not respected by all the territorial bodies, as tax associations have reported in recent days. Uncat, the National Federation of Tax Lawyers’ Chambers, has become aware of taxpayers who continued to receive notifications of communications and invitations even during the bank holiday week in August.

Checks

In short, in a few days, the usual tax inspections will resume, supplemented by communications on irregularities. Then taxpayers subject to synthetic indicators of financial reliability will be called, or more simply, home by Friday, August 30. This deadline concerns in particular taxpayers who carry out economic activities for which internal audit standards have been approved and who have declared that their turnover does not exceed the established limit, but have not paid the tax authorities the amount due by the end of July.

In fact, taxpayers who miss the July 31 deadline can make payments by the next 30th day as long as they incur a 0.40% overpayment.