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The Income Tax Management (Amendment) Act, 2007 (Bill No. 114)

A BILL

entitled

AN ACT to amend the Income Tax Management Act

BE IT ENACTED by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the House of Representatives, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows>

Short title. Cap. 372.

Amendment of article 10A of the principal Act.

1. The short title of this Act is the Income Tax Management (Amendment) Act, 2007, and it shall be read and construed as one with the Income Tax Management Act, hereinafter referred to as “the principal Act”.
2. For article 10A of the principal Act there shall be substituted the following>
“10A. (1) The Commissioner may, when and as often as he deems necessary, give notice in writing to any person to furnish him, within a reasonable time stated in such notice, not being less than thirty days, such information as may be necessary in order to provide information, including documents, to foreign tax authorities where arrangements between Malta and the respective State or its tax authorities exist for the reciprocal exchange of information for tax purposes.
(2) The provisions of this article shall apply even if the Commissioner could not collect the relevant information for
the purposes of the Income Tax Acts. The provisions of this article shall have effect in respect of any person, entity or scheme, including a person entity or scheme referred to in article 17, notwithstanding any obligation to secrecy or confidentiality, or to any other restriction relating to the disclosure of information.
(3) For the purposes of this article, “tax” means any tax to which an arrangement as referred to in subarticle (1) applies.
(4) The powers of the Commissioner to require a person to provide information under this article include the power>
(a) to require any person to complete and deliver to the Commissioner any return specified in that notice<
(b) to summon any person who, he has reason to believe, is able to give information required for the purposes of this article, to attend before him and to examine such person on oath or otherwise<
(c) to require any person to produce for examination any books, documents, accounts (including bank statements, passbooks and other bank documents) and any other document which the Commissioner may require or a copy or extract thereof<
(d) to require any person to give information by means of written statements<
(e) to require any person to authenticate in such form as the Commissioner may consider appropriate or as may be prescribed any document prepared by that person or an extract thereof or the copy of any document held by that person or of an extract thereof<
(f) to require any person to confirm on oath any declaration made by him or any document prepared by him<
(g) to require any person to provide information, documents or written statements in such other form as the Minister may prescribe.
3. In the proviso to article 16 of the principal Act, immediately after the words “Provided that” there shall be added the words “, subject to article 10A,”.
C 1083

Amendment of article 16 of the principal Act.

C 1084

Amendment of article 17 of the principal Act.

Amendment of article 24 of the principal Act.

Amendment of article 24C of the principal Act.

Amendment of article 50 of the principal Act.

4. In article 17 of the principal Act, immediately after the words “professional secrecy,” there shall be added the words “and subject to article 10A,”.
5. Article 24 of the principal Act shall be amended as follows> (a) in subarticle (1), the words “, but not in the capacity of
a trustee of a trust” shall be deleted< and
(b) for the proviso to subarticle (1) there shall be substituted the following>
“Provided that, subject to the provisions of article 10A, no such person shall, by virtue of this article, be obliged to disclose any information in relation to another person which he holds in the capacity of a trustee of a trust or which is otherwise covered by the duty of professional secrecy.”.
6. Article 24C of the principal Act shall be amended as follows> (a) in the first proviso, for the words “Provided that the
information” there shall be substituted the words “Provided that,
subject to article 10A, the information”< and
(b) in the second proviso, for the words “Provided further that where” there shall be substituted the words “Provided further that, subject to article 10A, where”.
7. Article 50 of the principal Act shall be amended as follows> (a) for the words “not exceeding fifty liri” there shall be
substituted the words “not exceeding five thousand liri”< and
(b) for the words “not exceeding two liri” there shall be substituted the words “not exceeding one hundred liri”.

Object and Reasons

The object of the Bill is to give powers to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue to collect the information which he is required to provide to foreign tax authorities in terms of reciprocal international arrangements for the exchange of information.

Ippubblikat mid-Dipartiment ta’ l-Informazzjoni (doi.gov.mt) — Valletta — Published by the Department of Information (doi.gov.mt) — Valletta

Mitbug[ fl-Istamperija tal-Gvern — Printed at the Government Printing Press

Prezz#Price

Lm0.16 (€0.37)