Non-filing taxpayers to be targeted

Once all income tax declarations are in, by August 31 at the latest, authorities will focus on those taxpayers who have not filed returns over the past five years.

Ta authorities will initially be targeting 2017 incomes, because a statute of limitations on them means they can no longer be investigated after year's end. Local tax offices and tax inspectors in the field have been directed to send a minimum of 15,000 payment notices with "estimated" taxes owed, based on what is known of the economic activity of these individuals or businesses, including inflows and outflows from bank accounts.

The targeted groups will be pensioners who benefited from back pay legal settlements and did not declare the additional income, taxpayers with income derived from abroad, property owners who did not declare income from rents and self-employed professionals.