Cost of Fiscal rep - can you recommend anyone

[Al Garb]

The most important aspect to remeber is that the finance department is a God-like institution

Just as well I'm an aetheist then.
EC have already stated that Portugal is breaking the law by expecting taxpayers to have a fiscal rep so why should non taxpayers be expected to do so. Remember folks you are dealing with a computer. To it you are a number. Providing IMI is paid your Camara's computer is a happy bunny. A year ago I paid a neighbours IMI on line. He had paid nothing in 2007. His 2008 bill had the 2007 charges + the 2008 charges + afew € interest on the value of his 2007 bill. Computer said "Yes"
It would be interesting to hear of any non taxpayer who has had his wrist slapped for not having a fiscal rep.

[thepropertydoctor]

Gambrinus is quite accurate in regard to responsibiities. My company acts as fiscal rep for many clients. I believe we do know what we are doing but still maanged to get fined by the tax department for something a client did that was totally out of our control and caused by his lawyer!
We had to pay Euros 1,800 - twice!

We are of course appealing it but a tax appeal here is a little like waiting for the Arade reservoir to ice over.

Fiscal rep is not to be entered into lightly, especially by an individual with assets in his or her name!

[sanreen]

I can appreciate that people who have dealings with their fiscal reps, for renting out properties, tax returns etc should not enter into it lightly. But what I cannot accept is that fiscal reps charging the same amount for paying IMI taxes on an apartment once a year when you could do it yourself.

[Bruce Wallis]

I can appreciate that people who have dealings with their fiscal reps, for renting out properties, tax returns etc should not enter into it lightly. But what I cannot accept is that fiscal reps charging the same amount for paying IMI taxes on an apartment once a year when you could do it yourself.

That's my gripe as well....paying the fiscal rep is almost 3 times the cost of the tax.
It seems like jobs for the boys to me.

[Gambrinus]

The most important aspect to remeber is that the finance department is a God-like institution

Just as well I'm an aetheist then.
EC have already stated that Portugal is breaking the law by expecting taxpayers to have a fiscal rep so why should non taxpayers be expected to do so. Remember folks you are dealing with a computer. To it you are a number. Providing IMI is paid your Camara's computer is a happy bunny. A year ago I paid a neighbours IMI on line. He had paid nothing in 2007. His 2008 bill had the 2007 charges + the 2008 charges + afew € interest on the value of his 2007 bill. Computer said "Yes"
It would be interesting to hear of any non taxpayer who has had his wrist slapped for not having a fiscal rep.

I really must stop using metaphors, they really don't seem to promote the understanding of the subject.

So let me exemplify what I meant: The financas are systematically revising property values for tax purposes. Your "number" is up and your property gets re-evaluated and you do not agree with the value because it is to high due to small errors (for some reason they factored in a garage and a pool you don't own), but because you did not have a fiscal rep and the letter sat in your mailbox for two weeks, you only got the mail after the deadline for revision has passed. You have just automatically agreed to the new value and there is nothing you can do about it.

That is just one of many real-life examples of how a finance department can make "errors" to your disadvantage. If you choose not to appoint a fiscal rep then for the time you own property in portugal you have a small risk of becoming a victim of a system you so accurately described as impersonal and systematic.

It is like any other insurance really - you can choose not to take out the policy, but when something does go wrong, you are going to wish you had. As far as the EU goes, well, Portugal has prooven very proficient at ignoring the guidlines simply because the sanctions are still vaastly smaller than what they stand to gain financially from the policies they apply.

[Bruce Wallis]

That last comment about the Portuguese just obeying the bits that suit them is the essence of how most members of the EU treats its edicts.
Why oh why do we British seem to be the only nation that treats these edicts as tablets of stone descending from Mount Sinai?
We actually make life hard for ourselves.
Do the rest of europe worry about the exact size of tomatoes, the angle of curve in a banana, or whether a sausage conforms exactly to some Euro-spec?? Of course not.

I quite like the notion that the Portuguese pick out the "best bits"

[SJ & RE]

Must be on the same wave length as my mother in law, as she only cherry picks what suits her, whether or not its verbal or written down.