So… Portugal has a new computer system for paying taxes. All companies are supposed to send off their invoices for processing at the tax office.
Of course, if you don’t ask for an invoice, there is no reason for the company to generate one, and so no VAT needs to be paid, right? And since it’s a hassle to get an invoice (inputting your personal ID, address, etc), lots of Portuguese can’t be bothered.
So… how to get the consumer to ask for the invoice, thus forcing the company to generate one?
We’ll bribe them! shouts the Portuguese tax office. Really.
Every single invoice generated to individuals will be entered into a monthly lottery. And prizes given out to randomly selected taxpayers. So asking for an invoice on anything is the same as buying a lottery ticket. Prizes will be cash (up to 90,000€ it’s suggested), holidays, cars…
Portugal expects to spend about 10 million a year on prizes.
Cunning? Not even Baldrick could have come up with this one….