OPPOSITION party DISY will vote against the government’s six bills aimed at clamping down on tax evasion because in fact they penalise law-abiding taxpayers, DISY Deputy President Averoff Neophytou has said.
Speaking to reporters over the weekend, Neophytou said that the way the bills have been drafted, rather than targeting tax-evaders they represent a “tax-raid on the law-abiding citizen who for years declared his income, in order to convert the state into a tax police state” through changing the taxable basis of property and other provisions.
Neophytou said that the government “gets top marks for propaganda” about clamping down on tax evasion. “We all stated that, of course, we would stand at their side to clamp down on tax evasion.” Instead, he said, the bills ignore “those who are making hundreds of millions out of illegal gambling and the online casinos that are sprouting all over Cyprus”.
In answer to the observation that his party would not approve the bills, Neophytou wondered whether they should “approve carrying out a tax-raid on ordinary people during an economic recession …with no attempt to target those who are genuinely evading taxes and who are getting richer by the day?”
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou responded on Sunday that “no law-abiding citizen who pays his taxes normally will have anything to fear; rather, those who should be scared are whoever are evading taxes and getting rich without paying what is due to the state.”
Stefanou said that DISY “should explain to people why it opposes clamping down on tax evasion and protects all those who are evading tax, at the same time continuously making statements that we should clamp down on tax evasion”.
Regarding the accusation that the government is not taking any steps to stamp out illegal electronic gambling, Stefanou said that the issue of tax evasion is very specific and is being addressed through a body of both existing and proposed legislation. At the same time, he said, electronic gambling is recognised by both government and House of Representatives – including DISY members – as being a “difficult and complicated issue” to legislate for.
To attempt to link the two issues under the same heading of tax evasion is “akin to muddying the waters”, he added.
