The Tunisian Federation of craftsmen and small and medium-sized enterprises launched an urgent appeal to the Presidency of the Republic and to the Ministry of Finance to end the Criminal Tax Trials drawn up against companies crossing serious financial difficulties.
According to the Federation, article 92 of the tax rights and procedures code provides for prison terms and fines for default of taxes due. However, its application presupposes proof of a deliberate intention, as stipulated in article 37 of the penal code. However, in practice, minutes would be established against companies in economic distress, without demonstrating this intentional character. A situation qualified as “unjustified harassment” jeopardizing the investment and sustainability of the economic fabric.
The press release recalls that these practices continued even in 2021, in the middle of COVID-19 pandemic, while the government called to support businesses and preserve jobs. The Federation speaks of a “dangerous policy” aimed at “breaking entrepreneurs and pushing them towards bankruptcy or economic exile”.
It also denounces the prosecution against companies having joined the tax amnesty, judging them contrary to article 74 of the same code. Hence his call for the opening of an urgent investigation, the cancellation of disputed minutes and the implementation of a mechanism allowing companies in difficulty to file their tax and social declarations in debt recognition, rather than overwhelming them with penalties deemed “fatal”.
Finally, the signatories of the press release urge the State to concentrate its efforts on the fight against smuggling and tax evasion, instead of “strangling” legally constituted companies which are already evolving in a degraded business environment and under a tax pressure qualified as “unfair”.
