The Tax office announced on Wednesday that the next day’s deadline for submission of 2023 tax returns had been put back by a month to November 30. Press reports had suggested this was the plan, a week ago, but it had not been confirmed until the eve of the deadline. The reason for the extension was that there were problems with the Taxisnet website in mid-October and it could not be accessed by people outside Cyprus.
That this was considered an adequate reason for changing the deadline is indicative of the way the authorities encourage people not to be punctual with the payment of their dues to the state. Ignoring payment deadlines has become part of our culture thanks to the tolerance shown by the authorities, who treat citizens as undisciplined schoolchildren who must be given another chance to obey the rules.
The funny thing was that the original deadline for submission of 2023 tax returns was in May or June and had been put back to the end of October for some reason or other. Under the circumstances there was no rational justification for putting the deadline back the end of November, as people had already been given a big extension. As for those abroad, who could not access Taxisnet in mid-October there should have been no allowances. They had been given many months to submit their returns and failed to do. The Tax Office should have penalised them instead of giving them more time.
As a result of the government’s relaxed attitude, people never bother doing anything on time. The two-month extension for the renewal of road tax has become a tradition, invariably approved by deputies. In the past, when people had to queue up for hours at government offices in January to have their road tax renewed, an extension of the deadline by a couple of weeks could be justified, but the problem of queues no longer exists. Most people renew their road tax from home by accessing the Road Transport Department website. So why are extensions of six to eight weeks always given? There are no queues to justify this.
Because of this relaxed approach of the authorities nobody bothers paying their state dues on time. Municipalities have a much healthier approach to collecting citizens’ dues. They set a strict deadline for payment of annual rates and anyone who misses it is automatically charged a fine. People know this will happen and make a point of paying on time. Why do state authorities not do the same? When people know a deadline will not be moved, they will go out of their way to pay on time so that they would not be burdened with a fine.
The problem is that for road tax and the submission of tax returns the deadline is always extended, so they leave payment until the last minute. It is time that this tradition ends, once and for all. When payment deadlines are not put back, people will make a point of paying the state on time. This state laxness needs to stop as it also undermines the way people view the state.
