EXCLUSIVE: The Income Tax Management Act empowers editors to demand the Inland Revenue declarations of all present and former MPs
Nobody in the press seems to know (I am assuming that if they did, they would have acted on it) that editors registered under the Press Act have the right, under Chapter 372 of the Laws of Malta (the Income Tax Management Act) to request the Speaker for details of the income declared to the Inland Revenue by any member of parliament.
And the Speaker is obliged, under the same law, to accede to that request.
I repeat: the income of any member of parliament as declared to the Inland Revenue, and not the income and assets of ministers of state as voluntarily disclosed by them to parliament under an entirely separate and distinct procedure.
Not only do editors have the right at law to make such requests, but the Speaker of the House is obliged at law to accede to them and to give them the information.
Exactly the same right to demand information on income tax details of other MPs is accorded to MPs themselves.
The relevant section of the law is 4. (5) (b), which I have appended as an image here.
4. (5) (a) deals with the Commissioner of Inland Revenue’s obligation, under this law, to furnish the Speaker of the House, every year, with details of the income declared to his department by every member of parliament. He is obliged to do this even for up to a year after an MP has left parliament and is no longer an MP.
If an MP has been re-elected to parliament after an absence in which he hadn’t been, then the Commissioner of Inland Revenue is obliged to submit even the income tax details for the intervening years in which the MP did not have a seat in the House.
The reason why the Commissioner of Inland Revenue is obliged under the law to furnish income tax details of all MPs is precisely so that editors and MPs can ask for them.
This is the process of scrutiny of those who represent us in parliament, by their colleagues in the House and by the press.
The press and Opposition MPs are wasting their time scrutinising and asking questions about the voluntary declarations which Ministers of State have made to parliament: Anton Refalo and his minimal income sustaining a loan of almost a million and a vast property portfolio, for instance, and Manuel Mallia, spare change running about the house.
What they should be doing is going straight to the Speaker of the House with a formal request under Chapter 372 – 4 (5) (b) of the Laws of Malta.
The Speaker cannot refuse if he has the information. If the Commissioner for Inland Revenue has not met his obligations under the law and supplied the Speaker with the information, then this is itself a story.
Editors and other people in the press are accustomed to reading only the Press Act as we believe that this is the comprehensive law which covers our rights and obligations. So it is not surprising that this major instrument of democratic scrutiny by the press, of members of the House, has gone unnoticed so far.
The Income Tax Management Act practically opens with it, but journalists tend not to read that law. Some MPs, however, are likely to know about it. So one just has to ask whether the reason they don’t use it is that they are complicit in some form of ‘unilateral disarmament’ – you don’t ask about ours and we won’t ask about yours. I hope to goodness that sheer ignorance of their rights at law is the real reason.
When I found out about this, I went straight to the Department of Information to have myself registered under the Press Act as editor of this news website. My request was refused on the grounds that they do not register people as editors of news websites.
I found this response fascinating, because when I had sued Kurt Farrugia and won, over an article that appeared on the Malta Labour Party’s website Maltastar, I sued him as the website’s editor and not as the writer of the article, which was anonymous.
My main purpose in seeking to be registered as an editor is to request the Speaker of the House for details of the income declared to the Inland Revenue by Manuel Mallia, Anton Refalo, Jesmond Mugliett, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Franco Debono. The Commissioner of Inland Revenue should have submitted details for the last three up to March this year.
Pullicino Orlando’s is likely to be of particular interest, because five years ago, when I was still patiently listening to his mad rants, he boasted to me that he earns around Eur170,000 a year but declares only a fraction of that because most of his patients pay cash and he doesn’t bank it. “Don’t tell anyone,” he said to me. I no longer feel under any obligation not to betray this confidence, as he himself broke any such contract of honour, towards me and in general, a long time ago.
The reasons why the Police Minister’s and the Gozo Minister’s declarations to the Inland Revenue are of interest to the public who voted them in, and who they represent, should be obvious.
Given that the Department of Information has made it impossible for me to make this request myself under the law, I trust that some editor registered under the Press Act will make full use of his or her rights under Chapter 372 of the Laws of Malta, and fill his or her newspaper with many public-interest stories about our corrupt and abusive politicians, who think themselves above and beyond the law, for many weeks.
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http://www.justiceservices.gov.mt/DownloadDocument.aspx?app=lom&itemid=8841
And before any smart Alec tries, that info is not protected by the Data Protection Act (disclosure mandated by law and publication permitted on grounds of freedom of expression / journalistic freedom) or the Professional Secrecy Act (disclosure mandated by law).
“He boasted to me that he earns around Eur170,000 a year but declares only a fraction of that because most of his patients pay cash and he doesn’t bank it.”
And I’m sure he’s not the only medical professional to be doing that.
Which is why it would be a good idea for a token VAT rate to be introduced on all health services.
The situation is grossly unfair on other self-employed professionals.
You certainly have blown the whistle. It’s now up to the Tax Compliance Unit to act and investigate Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, and there is no excuse or not doing so.
CHAPTER 248
PRESS ACT (extract)
‘ “editor” means the person responsible for the publication of any printed matter and in respect of a newspaper or broadcasting service includes any person complying with the provisions of article 35;’
‘ “printed matter” means any writing printed in typographical
characters or by lithography or any similar device or process on paper or other substance, as well as any bill, placard or poster containing any sign or script written, printed, painted, embossed or in any other manner impressed, and includes any record, tape, film or other means whereby words or visual images may be heard, perceived or reproduced;’
I would have thought that the ”words or visual images may be heard, perceived or reporduced” bit covered this medium. Or is their objection just to the fact that your commentary is not called e-paper?
http://www.justiceservices.gov.mt/DownloadDocument.aspx?app=lom&itemid=8743&l=1
No doubt the Commissioner of Laws will soon look at the interpretation of this Act and rectify if need be. Surely no one expects there not to be clear provisions for online services?
Thank you for that.
The bit you quoted pretty much covers anything. They have no grounds not to register Daphne as an editor.
It’s a case of shocking abuse of power and withholding of rights.
It would be interesting to find out what Franco Mercieca declares to the Inland Revenue. Here is a medical specialist who never gives receipts at clinics, and who has property investments which run into the millions.
It is on the record that he prefers being paid cash for operations in private hospitals.
You should have realised by now, Daphne, that there is one law for you and another law for everyone else. It’s either that or they make it up as they go along.
This is one heck of a find.
Can’t wait to see what’ll come next as a result. Is there anyone in Malta empowered by this act who WILL use it to inform the public?
Most probably not. We’ve been fed “MPs’ Declaration of Assets” bullshit by the press for all these years (the Act is dated 1994), and I think this had hardly anything to do with ignorance of the law by those concerned and much more likely a case of backs and their reciprocal scratching.
I can’t wait to see it happen, but all I can see is a national coordinated fight to prevent you, Daphne, from ever being registered as an editor.
Give ’em hell.
From personal experience at Inland Revenue, take it from me that many would be shocked if and when they ask for details.
I was the first who assessed the members of parliament when the law was introduced which made it compulsory for the Commissioner of Inland Revenue to lay the declarations and assessments on the table of the House.
Aren’t Maltarightnow, iNews, Newsbook, and Maltastar considered as online newspapers and do each of these sites have editors?
Likely, the most popular newspaper in the US is the Huffington Post is an online newspaper, so much so that most politicians are interviewed by it (and seek an interview) during election campaigns.
The refusal to register you stinks.
Would they refuse to register the editor of the inews website just because it’s an online news source?
And would the editors of The Malta Independent and The Times of Malta websites (as opposed to the editors of the printed versions) be barred from registering? And what about the editor of the TVM website?
In fact, the whole thing is ridiculous. If it’s in the public interest, ANY citizen should have the right to request and be given that information.
How do they even define the term ‘newspaper’? Can’t the head of a radio or television newsroom ask for this information?
Are magazines excluded? Do the print newspapers handed out for free at bus stops and at university qualify?
If you print five single sheets of paper and hand them out to five random individuals, would that be enough to qualify you as an editor of a newspaper? And if not, on what grounds?
The law is ridiculously vague and being abused to keep you from registering. Going by their logic, a 24 hour news channel cannot ask for this information because they don’t publish a newspaper.
Once again, using the letter of the law to break its spirit.
And what about the editor of a book about current affairs?
Will the editor the The Malta Independent kindly oblige. We cannot rely on Times of Malta to do this and analyse the information properly.
With even things as serious as police records being changed and deleted at random, what guarantee do we have that any editor would be given the real information?
This government can no longer be trusted.
It has failed its mandate.
It is a corrupt government.
There should now be a call for elections.
If the President can’t and won’t do it, there will be another way.
Aren’t you the editor of the foodie magazine? You can still request the information as the editor for that one.
[Daphne – It has to be a news.]
Let the income of all MPs be published. It is good to know how much they declare.
I am sure that all professionals and skilled workers do not declare their proper income.
It is only us employees and pensioners who declare their full income. From their life styles one can assume how much they earn.
Did any newspaper editor take this one up?