Who’s paying tax?

This is that time of the year when the commissioner for tax and customs ends up having to publish long (and, no doubt, costly) adverts in this paper showing the names of people who would not have been cooperative with the revenue departments in picking up – and, presumably, honouring – their official notices of their due taxes.

Perusing one such list (December 12), the number of surnames clearly indicating that such persons are not, in fact, people who would have been born in Malta, must necessarily raise some questions. The foreigners outnumber the Maltese at some five-to-one and the immediate question that arises is the following:

How true is the claim often made by some politicians that the large number of foreigners brought to work in Malta are, in fact, paying sufficiently so that pensions, salaries, welfare, health, etc. can be paid to all us Maltese citizens?

I do not claim to know the answer to this question but some figures – from either the NSO or the revenue departments themselves – would certainly help to make most of us feel better.

As things appear, prima facie this too is yet another reason why the unfettered growth in Malta of non-Maltese residents and workers is not a good thing for the country’s economy.

John Consiglio – Birkirkara

Grading the pastizz

Photo: Shutterstock.com

Pastizzi, our national snack, are being promoted internationally. Some are proposing having a sort of copyright on the technique of making pastizzi.

A Google search shows at least six outlets each claiming to have the best in Malta.

Why not try to have a Which? Magazine-type report to examine, say, 20 pastizzerias? Consumers will then have, hopefully, an unbiased idea of what to buy.

Obviously, tasters should not be persons worried about putting on weight.

Stephen Vassallo – Xewkija

Historic ‘crown jewel’

The most recent season of The Crown featured several references to Villa Guardamangia, the house in which then Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and her then fiancé, Philip Mountbatten (later Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) “were able to live normally”, for example, driving a car, shopping and going to the hairdresser.

The late queen was clearly very fond of the Maltese islands and regularly let it be known that her stay in Pietà was one of the best periods of her life. It cannot be a coincidence that the royal couple celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in Malta in 2007.

This historic house certainly has the potential to be a ‘crown jewel’ in Malta’s offering to tourists and I feel they would flock over from across the globe to experience such a historic residence in much the same way that visitors still flock to Chartwell, Kent, to see the former home of Sir Winston Churchill.

The Maltese government announced in October 2019 that it had bought Villa Guardamangia and that the property had the potential to become a huge tourist attraction. Has there been any progress since then?

Jonathan Chard Deeley - Sliema