Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1003259
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 11 JULY 2018 7 NEWS LIAM Debono, 17, has been handed down a three-year pro- bation sentence and fined €5,000 over a case involving car theft. The young man, who is cur- rently facing separate charges of attempted murder when he ran over a police officer and kept on driving, also had his licence sus- pended. This effectively means he will not be able to obtain a valid driving licence upon reach- ing 18. Debono was charged last week with stealing a number of motor vehicles in 2017. Inspectors Fa- bian Fleri and Chantelle Casha charged the youth with the theft of two cars and a motorcycle in May and June of last year. He was also charged with tam- pering with the chassis number and licence plates of one of the cars, driving all three without insurance, driving the motor- cycle without a licence, keeping the vehicles and trying to sell them. Magistrate Joe Mifsud de- livered judgment on the theft cases yesterday morning, while Debono stood in the dock for the other case involving the po- lice officer. Debono had asked the vic- tims of theft for forgiveness in court and they pardoned him, renouncing the criminal action against him. Lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia were defence counsel. Liam Debono gets three years' probation after victims of car theft forgive him PAUL COCKS THE European Commission's propos- al on Special VAT Exemption scheme for small enterprises should leave cer- tain simplification measures optional in case Member States would want to be more stringent in the way they col- lect their VAT, Maltese MEP Alfred Sant and Shadow Rapporteur for the S&D Group, told the European Par- liament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON). The committee was discussing the European Commission's proposal for a Common system of value added tax as regards the special VAT scheme for small enterprises in the framework of the consideration of the amendments from all political groups. National systems vary in the share of SMEs in their economy and may rely more on VAT collected from them. This is especially relevant in the case of Malta, which derives more tax input from SMEs than other EU countries. The proposal represents an effort to further unblock the rigidities of the VAT with respect to SMEs. Sant underlined that MEPs should each vote for the thresholds that suit the circumstances in their respective countries and that this Directive was not an ideological issue. It should especially ease cross-border traffic for SMEs willing to engage in EU trade. To this end, Sant expressed his sup- port for the set-up of an online regis- tration system and for a one-stop-shop for filing VAT returns in different Member States which would be estab- lished by the Commission. The Maltese MEP emphasised that the simplification measures should be no avenue for tax avoidance and VAT fraud. "Making the VAT process simpler for SMEs should by no means allow for facilitating abuses or disappearance of tax money," the Maltese MEP said. Sant said he was totally in favour of keeping the Commission's threshold of €2 million annual turnover, trusting the Commission's executive experi- ence. He strongly objected to the Rap- porteur's amendment which would increase the threshold in the defini- tion of SMEs up to €4 million turno- ver. Such an increase could have great budgetary implications for Malta and could induce a loss of revenues for the national treasury. "I suggest that one sticks to the Com- mission's original proposal with only the maximum threshold set for ex- emption, while Member States would remain with the possibility to set the lower one." The Maltese MEP referred to an amendment he tabled regarding the transitional regime. Sant has put forward one of his amendments in favour of SMEs facing seasonal factors or irregular demand, extending the transitional regime fore- seen in the Directive. "When SMEs overrun the exemption thresholds of €85,000, they should be provided with a two-year, rather a one- year transition period, before losing their exempt status, always provided that the annual turnover in the Mem- ber State concerned during these two years, does not exceed the threshold by over 50%. This would allow SMEs – in certain sectors, such as the construc- tion sector – which are confronted with seasonal factors and irregular demand, to benefit from a greater smoothing period." Referring to the implementation dates, the Maltese MEP said that to- gether with the S&D group, he is sup- porting their advancement, as such VAT simplification measures could be implemented more quickly than the definitive VAT regime. The report will be voted on today in the ECON Committee and will be debated and voted later in September at the Plenary of the European Parlia- ment. Tax collection should be prerogative of each EU member state, Alfred Sant tells ECON Liam Debono (back seat), arriving at the Law Courts in a police car, in Valletta, yesterday