Businesses don’t evade vehicle taxes – executive summary

Combined vehicles and company passengers must pay taxes, even if evidence of no personal use is presented, says Journal de Negosios.

The statutory rules setting out separate taxation of expenses for companies with light passenger vehicles, light-duty vehicles, motorcycles or mopeds “constitute tax rules that do not provide for any presumption that the opposite can be demonstrated”. Thus, the ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court (STA), which was published last week in the newspaper Diario da Republic, puts an end to various judicial decisions in arbitral tribunals.

“In practical terms, it is a corporate defeat and involves taxes in the thousands of euros,” it can be read in today’s edition of the newspaper.

In practice, the Autonomous Vehicle Tax, created in 2001, as a means to combat tax fraud and evasion, aims to “prevent companies from using certain types of expenses to covertly reward their employees — and in this case, give them service transportation also for private use,” he explains. Negócios “Unless they are commercial vehicles — or in the case of motorcycles, they are electric — all vehicles are subject to independent taxation.”

The issue had to be clarified because of the process that began with the CTT motorcycle fleet, which used vehicles, including passenger cars, to distribute mail, as well as compensation paid to postal drivers for their motorcycles.

“After initially losing a claim against the tax authorities in arbitration, at the Center for Administrative Arbitration (CAAD), the CTT decided to file an appeal with the STA, alleging there were previous decisions in the arbitration to the contrary. Then they lost,” the newspaper advances.