Court 'perplexed' by VAT Department's action against company director

A director of a local company was cleared of swindling the state coffers out of some €97,000 in VAT payments after a court found that an essential element of the alleged offence was missing. Criminal proceedings were instituted against Carmel Spiteri as director, shareholder and company secretary of Tal-General Co. Ltd. upon the strength of a letter to prosecute issued by the department. The letter had stemmed from a claim that the recipient had, back in 2009 and in the preceding years, failed to pay up some €97,781 collected by way of VAT. Yet in the course of proceedings before a Magistrates’ Court, an official from the VAT Department had testified that Mr Spiteri’s company operated on an accrual basis which meant that the taxpayer was to declare all issued invoices, including those which had not yet been settled. In view of this, the court, presided by Donatella Frendo Dimech, pronounced itself “truly perplexed and astounded by the fact that the department had issued a letter to prosecute when, in the department’s own words, the company had never been paid the relative funds.” A crucial element for the existence of the offence as charged was the actual receipt of the money...