CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Gostei de ler este discurso do Sr. Secretário de Estado do Tesouro e das Finanças sobre Corporate Governance.

BENEFÍCIOS FISCAIS REEMBOLSÁVEIS

Para fazer face à crise no mercado imobiliário, nos EUA foi criado um benefício fiscal que pode significar uma diminuição do imposto a pagar (ou reembolso) de 7.500 USD - 10% do valor de aquisição com o limite de 7.500 USD.

A singularidade deste "benefício fiscal" (tax credit) passa pela necessidade de o mesmo ser devolvido, sem juros, a partir de 2010, num período de 15 anos.

É assim, em substância, um empréstimo concedido pelo estado sem juros a quem invista na aquisição da sua primeira habitação.

Será que em Portugal alguém se vai lembrar (copiar) desta medida?

2009 vai ser um ano de eleições...

Transcre-se a seguir a notícia do IRS:

Issue Number: IR-2008-106 Inside This Issue

Tax Credit to Aid First-Time Homebuyers; Must Be Repaid Over 15 Years WASHINGTON — First-time homebuyers should begin planning now to take advantage of a new tax credit included in the recently enacted Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Available for a limited time only, the credit: Applies to home purchases after April 8, 2008, and before July 1, 2009. Reduces a taxpayer’s tax bill or increases his or her refund, dollar for dollar. Is fully refundable, meaning that the credit will be paid out to eligible taxpayers, even if they owe no tax or the credit is more than the tax that they owe. However, the credit operates much like an interest-free loan, because it must be repaid over a 15-year period. So, for example, an eligible taxpayer who buys a home today and properly claims the maximum available credit of $7,500 on his or her 2008 federal income tax return must begin repaying the credit by including one-fifteenth of this amount, or $500, as an additional tax on his or her 2010 return. Eligible taxpayers will claim the credit on new IRS Form 5405. This form, along with further instructions on claiming the first-time homebuyer credit, will be included in 2008 tax forms and instructions and be available later this year on IRS.gov, the IRS Web site. If you bought a home recently, or are considering buying one, the following questions and answers may help you determine whether you qualify for the credit. Q. Which home purchases qualify for the first-time homebuyer credit? A. Only the purchase of a main home located in the United States qualifies and only for a limited time. Vacation homes and rental property are not eligible. You must buy the home after April 8, 2008, and before July 1, 2009. For a home that you construct, the purchase date is the first date you occupy the home. Taxpayers who owned a main home at any time during the three years prior to the date of purchase are not eligible for the credit. This means that first-time homebuyers and those who have not owned a home in the three years prior to a purchase can qualify for the credit. If you make an eligible purchase in 2008, you claim the first-time homebuyer credit on your 2008 tax return. For an eligible purchase in 2009, you can choose to claim the credit on either your 2008 (or amended 2008 return) or 2009 return. Q. How much is the credit? A. The credit is 10 percent of the purchase price of the home, with a maximum available credit of $7,500 for either a single taxpayer or a married couple filing jointly. The limit is $3,750 for a married person filing a separate return. In most cases, the full credit will be available for homes costing $75,000 or more. Whatever the size of the credit a taxpayer receives, the credit must be repaid over a 15-year period. Q. Are there income limits? A. Yes. The credit is reduced or eliminated for higher-income taxpayers. The credit is phased out based on your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI). MAGI is your adjusted gross income plus various amounts excluded from income—for example, certain foreign income. For a married couple filing a joint return, the phase-out range is $150,000 to $170,000. For other taxpayers, the phase-out range is $75,000 to $95,000. This means the full credit is available for married couples filing a joint return whose MAGI is $150,000 or less and for other taxpayers whose MAGI is $75,000 or less. Q. Who cannot take the credit? A. If any of the following describe you, you cannot take the credit, even if you buy a main home: Your income exceeds the phase-out range. This means joint filers with MAGI of $170,000 and above and other taxpayers with MAGI of $95,000 and above. You buy your home from a close relative. This includes your spouse, parent, grandparent, child or grandchild. You stop using your home as your main home. You sell your home before the end of the year. You are a nonresident alien. You are, or were, eligible to claim the District of Columbia first-time homebuyer credit for any taxable year. Your home financing comes from tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds. You owned another main home at any time during the three years prior to the date of purchase. For example, if you bought a home on July 1, 2008, you cannot take the credit for that home if you owned, or had an ownership interest in, another main home at any time from July 2, 2005, through July 1, 2008. Q. How and when is the credit repaid? A. The first-time homebuyer credit is similar to a 15-year interest-free loan. Normally, it is repaid in 15 equal annual installments beginning with the second tax year after the year the credit is claimed. The repayment amount is included as an additional tax on the taxpayer’s income tax return for that year. For example, if you properly claim a $7,500 first-time homebuyer credit on your 2008 return, you will begin paying it back on your 2010 tax return. Normally, $500 will be due each year from 2010 to 2024. You may need to adjust your withholding or make quarterly estimated tax payments to ensure you are not under-withheld. However, some exceptions apply to the repayment rule. They include: If you die, any remaining annual installments are not due. If you filed a joint return and then you die, your surviving spouse would be required to repay his or her half of the remaining repayment amount. If you stop using the home as your main home, all remaining annual installments become due on the return for the year that happens. This includes situations where the main home becomes a vacation home or is converted to business or rental property. There are special rules for involuntary conversions. Taxpayers are urged to consult a professional to determine the tax consequences of an involuntary conversion. If you sell your home, all remaining annual installments become due on the return for the year of sale. The repayment is limited to the amount of gain on the sale, if the home is sold to an unrelated taxpayer. If there is no gain or if there is a loss on the sale, the remaining annual installments may be reduced or even eliminated. Taxpayers are urged to consult a professional to determine the tax consequences of a sale. If you transfer your home to your spouse, or, as part of a divorce settlement, to your former spouse, that person is responsible for making all subsequent installment payments.

CCCTB vê o futuro adiado

A ideia de uma base tributável comum para as empresas na União Europeia não está a vingar com a facilidade que se esperaria. É a "Velha Europa" mais uma vez a funcionar. Isto de uma empresa com prejuízos fiscais num Estado-membro poder deduzi-los ao lucro tributável de outro coloca muitas questões que não vão ser fáceis de ultrapassar, como por exemplo, as diferenças nas administrações tributárias europeias no combate à evasão fiscal. Tive uma ideia peregrina para contornar este problema: a criação de uma inspecção tributária europeia!

Kovacs postpones CCCTB proposals
Joanna Faith

The European Commission has delayed the release of the highly anticipated legislative proposal on a common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB).

In a speech to the International Fiscal Association's annual congress, Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said that while significant progress had been made on the proposal, there was still more work to do.

"I would rather present a perfectly elaborated and well justified product at the appropriate time than present an incomplete one just to meet an artificial deadline," Kovacs said.

In October 2007 Kovacs told the European Parliament he would present a proposal "after the summer break in 2008". And in April of this year, France pledged to push forward with plans for a CCCTB when its six-month presidency of the EU started in June. But in May rumours suggested the Commission had postponed the proposal date.

Despite opposition from member states including Ireland, Britain, Estonia and Slovakia, the Commission is committed to a CCCTB system. It claims the initiative would reduce compliance costs, omit the need to determine arm's length transfer prices for intra group transactions and provide a consolidation mechanism to offset profits and losses of the same company in different member states.

"It seems like political reality is intervening after Kovacs said 'business as usual' following Ireland's no vote to the Lisbon Treaty," said Peter Cussons, from PricewaterhouseCoopers in London.

Kovacs did not announce a new deadline for the proposal. Instead he said: "I remain fully committed to this project, and when the impact assessment and the proposal are properly ready I will present these to the College."

"It's unlikely there will be a directive under the French presidency," Cussons said. "Then there is a question mark over 2009. The Czech Republic takes over the presidency in the first half of the year and September is when the Commission is due to retire en masse."

But Cussons said that Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the Commission, is hoping to be re-elected. "He wouldn't want any contentious documents on the table around the time of the election and a CCCTB would be one," he said.

Será isto (in)justiça?

O Acórdão de 20-08-2008, relativo ao Processo 715/08, do Supremo Tribunal Administrativo demonstra a necessidade de determinadas decisões atenderem a critérios de justiça, atendendo à substância económica dos factos que poderão estar a ser omitidos à devida e justa tributação.

Resumidamente:

1. A inspecção tributária da Direcção de Finanças de Faro apurou indícios fortes de que um Sr. Advogado não estaria a ser tributado de acordo com os rendimentos efectivamente obtidos;

2. Uma vez que existiam factos concretamente identificados indiciadores da falta de veracidade do declarado, foi decido pelo director-geral dos Impostos o acesso aos elementos bancários;

3. O Sr. Advogado, por natureza um cidadão de elevado sentido ético e consciente dos seus direitos (e deveres fiscais?), opôs-se a essa decisão, alegando que a informação bancária estava protegida pelo sigilo profissional, nos termos do artigo 63.º, n.º 4, al. b), da LGT;

4. Os juízes (não todos, conforme abaixo se transcreve) do STA entenderam que a informação bancária estava abrangida pelo sigilo profissional, pelo que não foi possível verificar a verdade do declarado pelo Sr. Advogado.

Não entendemos que factos - para além da identificação de terceiros com quem o advogado tem relações comerciais, que por maioria de razão também devem constar na contabilidade - abrangidos pelo sigilo profissional possam estar reflectidos na informação bancária. Que se saiba, os advogados não têm que depositar nos bancos os elementos processuais dos seus clientes, estes sim protegidos por sigilo profissional.

Dos três juízes, um não concordou com o Acórdão, transcrevendo-se de seguida a sua declaração de voto:
"

VOTO DE VENCIDO

Está em causa neste recurso a bondade da decisão do Sr. Director Geral dos Impostos que, nos termos do art.° 63.° - B da LGT, autorizou que a Administração Tributária acedesse directamente aos documentos bancários do ora Recorrido, a qual foi motivada pela recusa deste em exibir os documentos necessários à fiscalização da sua actividade profissional ou em autorizar a sua consulta por forma a poder-se calcular a sua matéria tributável em sede de IRS.

Nos termos do citado normativo a Administração Tributária tem o direito de aceder directamente a informações e documentos bancários quando tal seja indispensável para fixar a matéria colectável do contribuinte e este se encontre sujeito a contabilidade organizada e se recuse a fornecer essas informações e a autorizar a consulta daqueles documentos [seu n.° 1, a)], sendo que a correspondente decisão de autorização deve ser devidamente fundamentada e é susceptível de recurso judicial (seus n.°s 2 e 3).

Deste modo, a recusa do ora Recorrido em autorizar aquela consulta só poderia ser sufragada se a mesma se fundasse na falta de fundamentação da decisão autorizativa ou se, a coberto da consulta de documentação bancária, se pretendesse violar o segredo profissional.

Ora, in casu, manifestamente, não se está perante nenhuma dessas razões de oposição.

Com efeito, e desde logo, é absolutamente evidente que a decisão do Sr. Director Geral dos Impostos ora em causa foi fundamentada de forma exaustiva e rigorosa e que dela resulta, claramente, que se verificavam, os pressupostos legais - quer os subjectivos, relativos ao ora Recorrido, quer os substanciais, relativos à situação objectiva ora em causa - que consentiam a prolação daquela decisão.

Como também é manifestamente evidente que a pretensão da Administração não abrangia a devassa do segredo profissional visto que o que se visava esclarecer respeitava unicamente ao montante dos rendimentos obtidos pelo contribuinte na sua actividade profissional nos anos 2004, 2005 e 2006 e não às relações estabelecidas entre este e os seus clientes. Ou seja, não estava em causa as relações sigilosas estabelecidas entre o profissional liberal e o cliente mas apenas e tão só o valor económico cobrado pelo Recorrido aos seus clientes.

Daí que nenhuma ilegalidade tivesse sido cometida pelo Sr. Director Geral dos Impostos ao proferir o despacho sob censura pelo que entendo que o recurso merecia provimento e a sentença recorrida deveria ser revogada.

Lisboa, 20 Agosto 2008.

Costa Reis"

Mas, alguém tem dúvidas que esta posição do JUIZ Costa Reis é a mais sensata e JUSTA?

E o Sr. Advogado safou-se!!!