The agency that accuses the Treasury of being a “pickpocket” is searching for new shoppers and launches one other marketing campaign within the ‘Financial Times’ | Economy | EUROtoday

The escalation between the worldwide legislation agency Amsterdam & Partners and the Spanish Treasury has simply added a brand new chapter to the saga. A yr in the past, the agency revealed a double-page commercial in a number of worldwide newspapers accusing the Spanish Tax Agency of being a “pickpocket” for supposedly persecuting taxpayers. Then got here an uncommon public response from the Treasury company, firmly defending its officers and questioning, with information, the assault. Now, months later, the workplace has returned to the fray and has simply taken out a brand new commercial within the Financial Times by which he insists on his accusations.

The agency, based mostly in London and Washington, is based by Robert Amsterdam and is devoted to offering strategic recommendation to firms and people. In latest months he has gained notoriety for representing a gaggle of international buyers and residents towards the Treasury and has denounced Spain earlier than organizations such because the UN and the OECD for alleged violations of the rule of legislation.

In his new commercial, he accuses the Spanish tax system of encouraging unfair practices and penalizing international taxpayers. It maintains that Treasury inspectors obtain bonuses “whether they win or lose an unfair case” and that tax money owed thought-about abusive should be paid instantly, which makes the protection of those that attraction dearer. The agency presents the Spanish system as distinctive in Europe for rewarding regularizations, even when the courts right the settlements, and denounces an setting that, it claims, discourages tax justice.

The first episode broke out roughly a yr in the past, when the agency revealed a number of commercials within the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal y The night to report alleged systematic tax harassment by the Treasury of international taxpayers coated by the ley Beckham. That promoting marketing campaign, by which it was straight described as “pickpockets” (pickpockets) to the inspectors and people affected had been invited to rent the companies of the workplace, generated notable inside unrest within the Tax Agency.

The company depending on the Treasury, unaccustomed to coming into into public debates, broke its silence. In unusually forceful statements, official sources accused the agency of launching “a smear campaign based on false and serious accusations.” They additionally defended the professionalism of their officers and flatly rejected the thought – the central axis of the workplace’s marketing campaign – that inspectors obtain bonuses linked to the outcomes of their checks.

The Tax Agency emphasised the necessity to monitor the right utility of all particular tax regimes (such because the ley Beckham), since they signify a lack of revenue for the general public treasury that should be managed. That is, any of those tax formulation are topic to verification by the inspection if anomalies come up. And if a breach is detected, these sources emphasised, regularization and liquidation are vital. According to the numbers launched by the company, within the final 10 years virtually 37,000 taxpayers have used this system, of which solely 0.5% have been topic to an inspection for attainable non-compliance.

Several tax inspectors and technicians consulted additionally urged that the completely different initiatives promoted by the workplace, more and more “aggressive” and based mostly on “lies,” evidenced an try to make itself recognized to draw shoppers.

Far from moderating its speech, Amsterdam & Partners has determined to redouble it. The new advert, revealed this weekend within the Financial Timesinsists that “Tax inspectors receive a bonus whether they win or lose an unfair tax case.” The textual content maintains that the Spanish system penalizes fairness and that “fighting for justice costs you even more,” as a result of obligation to instantly pay settlements, even when they’re challenged.

The legislation agency assures this newspaper that they don’t seem to be searching for extra shoppers in Spain, however reasonably that they’re accumulating testimonies to “structure the legal actions they are preparing against the Tax Agency.” They add that greater than 500 taxpayers within the nation, most of them Spanish residents and self-employed staff, have already contacted the workplace to share their private tales. “All of them have suffered the same systematic violations of fundamental rights that we have reported to organizations such as the OECD and the United States Department of the Treasury in recent months.”