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| XIII - Tax Administration: Structure And Functions |
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- The Tax Administration II - Structure and Functions of the Directorate General for Taxation |
Tax
Administration - 1
I - The Tax Administration
The different bodies and services
pertaining to the Tax Administration of the State have a vertical
structure, being embodied in the Ministry of Finance, and
within this in the State Department for Fiscal Affairs and
the following Directorates General:
- Directorate General for Taxation;
- Directorate General for Customs
and Excise Taxes; and
- Directorate General for
Informatics and Assistance to Taxation and Customs Services.
The Directorate General for
Taxation (DGCI) is the service in the Ministry of Finance is
responsible for the management of income taxes, taxes on real
estate and general consumption taxes in accordance with the
policy determined by the Government in respect of fiscal issues.( * )
The Directorate General for
Customs and Excise Taxes (DGAIEC) is the service in the
Ministry of Finance that, in compliance with the policy as may be
decided by the Government and Community Rules, is responsible for:
( ** )
The Directorate
General for Informatics and Assistance to Taxation and Customs
Services (DGITA) is a service in the Ministry of Finance
responsible for supporting the DGCI and the DGAIEC in the area of
information systems and technology. ( *** )
II - Structure and Functions of
the Directorate General for Taxation
a) To ensure the assessment
and collection of all legal taxes;
b) To promote the correct
application of legal rules and administrative decisions;
Tax Administration - 2
c) To notify individual
persons on their tax liabilities and provide assistance in
connection thereto;
d) To carry out audit
investigations in order to prevent and fight against tax
avoidance and evasion;
e) To carry out fiscal
justice and ensure the representation of the Public Treasury
before the judicial bodies;
f) To ensure the
implementation of international agreements and conventions in tax
matters, in particular those aimed at avoiding double taxation;
g) To contribute to a greater
efficiency of the tax system by proposing normative, technical
and organisational measures as may be deemed appropriate;
h) To co-operate with the tax
administrations of other States and participate in the work of
international specialised entities in the taxation area;
i) To ensure the relationship
with national entities carrying out fiscal studies;
j) To perform other
activities incumbent upon it under the law or pursuant to any
decision taken at the highest level.
The DGCI shall therefore develop its
activities in the following areas: Tax assessment and collection; Tax Auditing/Control; Fiscal Justice; and Tax information and investigation.
2. The DGCI
is directed by a Director-General, who is responsible for the
implementation and control of the fiscal policy as determined by
the Government, with a three-level administrative hierarchical
structure endowed with different attributions and functions:
Central Services: District Services; and Local Services.
The Central Services
are the decision, direction and supporting bodies in relation to
the overall activity of the DGCI.
The District Services
(District Tax Departments) are the intermediate services
responsible for the decision, direction and support to local
services situated in their fiscal area, being equally incumbent
upon them the performance of those executive functions which,
owing to hierarchical reasons, fall outside the scope of their
own competencies.
The Local Services (Tax
Bureaux, that are designated in Lisbon and Oporto as "bairros
fiscais") are, by their own nature, the operating bodies of
tax administration responsible for the implementation of those
operations necessary to ascertain the tax situation of the
taxpayers and the establishment of taxes payable; complementary
services of tax management are also incumbent upon them.
The DGCI also embodies a Tax
Administration Board, chaired by the Director General and
formed by all Deputy Directors-General as well as the Director of
the Center for Fiscal Studies, being incumbent upon it to express
its own opinion on every question concerning the tax
administration and management of the competent services as may be
submitted to it by the Minister of Finance or the Director
General. It must be obligatorily consulted in relation to
different questions, namely with regard to human resources,
service organisation and general instructions designed to make
the compliance of law and tax procedures uniform.
The Center for Fiscal Studies
(CEF) operates at the central level as a technical assistance
service, and its activity falls within the scope of scientific
research in the area of taxation and connected subjects, as well
as the improvement of tax practice. Among its broad functions,
the CEF is also responsible for the technical negotiation of
international agreements on fiscal matters, the steady
participation in the works of specialised international bodies in
the Tax Administration - 3
fiscal area and the Portuguese
representation in international meetings for the study of tax
problems. It is also in charge of the quarterly publication of
"Ciência e Técnica Fiscal" and "Cadernos de Ciência
e Técnica Fiscal". In close connection with the CEF there
is a Documentation Division, responsible for the scientific and
technical information to be provided to the DGCI and the
management of its library. ( **** )
3. Other than the CEF, there
are at the central level different supporting and operating
services, namely:
Supporting services: