Filenews 14 October 2022 - by Eleftheria Paizanou
Interconnection of the systems of the Tax Department with the market and the cash registers of traders will be promoted in the coming years, in order to combat tax evasion and to automatically inform the tax authorities about buying and selling.
In this phase, the Department of Taxation will purchase services from individuals for the implementation of the memorandum of cooperation between the Ministry of Finance, the Centre of Excellence for Research and Innovation and the Research Body of the University of Cyprus, for the implementation of the project concerning the modernization of the infrastructure for the issuance of legal invoices and receipts. The project is included in the National Recovery Plan and is expected to be completed in 2024.
With the modernization of the infrastructure and the legal framework in relation to invoices and receipts, the automatic interconnection, in real time, of the market with the Tax Department will be allowed for the purpose of achieving direct information on commercial transactions and sales but also for a rapid reaction of the Tax Department in cases of tax evasion. The first phase of the memorandum was approved last June by the Council of Ministers, with the aim of conducting a feasibility study.
€800,000 to purchase services
At the same time, the Department will also purchase services from legal advisors and analysts, as part of the effort to strengthen its tax collection capacity. In 2023, it budgeted to spend more than €800,000 to obtain services from private individuals. Specifically, services by lawyers to strengthen the Judicial Measures Unit. It will also receive the services of operators of the terminal machines for the registration of the data of the old VAT returns, as well as from system analysts for the development of the new computerized system, as well as other programs. An operational continuity plan will also be prepared to define the process of creating prevention and recovery systems to address possible threats to the Department. Services will also be purchased for the gradual scanning of taxpayers' files for real estate tax and capital gains tax cases, with the aim of digitizing the files in the new system.
