The first half of this year proved to be very fruitful with regard to normative production in our country, with the economic, commercial, banking and financial sectors being the main areas of incidence of the aforementioned normative production.

From the referred normative instruments especially highlighted is the Law No. 1/2019, of May 30 and Decree No. 36/2019, of May 16, on which we propose to elaborate in this edition of our Newsletter:

  • The Law No. 1/2019, of May 30 , is related to the Exceptional Regime of Tax Debt Settlement. As set out in the preamble to the law, this regime aims to streamline the process of collecting tax debts and encourage taxpayers to normalize their tax situation.
  • • The passing of the aforementioned law is intended to address the inconveniences – of time and material resources – raised by the tax enforcement process which, as is known, is triggered by the coercive collection of tax debts (arts. 156 et seq. of General Tax Law).
  • • A way to streamline this debt collection process is to grant relief of fines, interest, costs of enforcement process and other legal additions arising from national and municipal taxes or non-compliance with ancillary obligations whose debt has been incurred up to December 31, 2018 (art. 1 of Law No. 1/2019, of May 30).
  • • Taxpayers can only benefit from such tax relief if they pay the amount of the tax due within 12 months of entry into force of the sub judice, i.e. until May 30, 2020, and will no longer qualify for such relief in the opposite case (arts. 2, 6 and 7 of Law no. 1/2019, of May 30).
  • • Articles 3 and 5 of Law 1/2019, of 30 May, set out procedural rules inherent to the instruction of the request (for the benefit of forgiveness) and the settlement of the amount of tax due.
  • • Decree No. 36/2019 of May 16approves theInsolvency Administrator’s Statute..
  • The Legal Regime of Insolvency and Recovery of Commercial Business, approved by Decree-Law no. 1/2013, of July 4between arts 21 and 25, succinctly regulate the figure of the Insolvency Administrator. Essentially, it establishes who may be an Insolvency Administrator, what his/her duties are, what is the manner and matters in which he/she should be held accountable for and his/her pay grade.
  • The Insolvency Administrator’s Statute, clarifies, details and introduces new aspects regarding the performance of the Insolvency Administrator.
  • The certification of the Administrator of Authority by the Minister (art. 3) who oversees the area of justice, the process of application and exam for access to the role of Insolvency Administrator (art. 7 to 16) and therules on incompatibilities and impediments (art. 30) are some of the aspects that stand out in the new regime established by the Administrator’s Statute.