Declaration of secret bank accounts bring in £112m

A GRAND total of £112 million will be added to state coffers as a result of the taxation of secret accounts which were declared within the framework of the government’s temporary tax amnesty, Chairman of the House Finance Committee Aristos Chrysostomou said yesterday.

The committee was briefed behind closed doors yesterday by the head of the Tax Declarations Office Theophilos Theophilou and General Director of the Finance Ministry Christos Patasalides in light of the tax amnesty period which comes to an end on February 28.

According to Chrysostomou, interest in the partial tax amnesty, which offered a five per cent tax rate up to February 1 and 6.5 per cent until the end of the month, is restricted. But given Cypriot tendencies to wait until “the last minute, it is likely there will be more declarations” by the end of the month when the amnesty expires.
A total of 2,000 statements were submitted during the five per cent amnesty period, counting for approximately £112 million in taxes.

Chrysostomou noted that all personal data of those who declared their secret accounts would be destroyed by March 31, 2005, without any evidence of their identity being leaked by the tax declarations office. The Commissioner for the Protection of Personal Data will monitor the destruction of the data.

Meanwhile, the £112 million boost to state coffers is seen as a positive step in implementing the government’s convergence plan aimed at curbing the fiscal deficit and introducing the euro to Cyprus by 2007.

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