Nationalist Party MP David Thake has asked parliament’s standards commissioner to investigate him, following revelations that his company owes €270,000 in back taxes and penalties.
Vanilla Telecoms, which is fully owned by Thake, is understood to have accrued the tax bill over a number of years. The MP has confirmed the outstanding bill and said that he is negotiating a repayment plan with the Inland Revenue Department.
He has however insisted that around €100,000 of that had been deferred through COVID aid measures intended to help business owners.
Taking to Facebook on Thursday after news of his company’s unpaid taxes broke, Thake said that he had written to parliament’s standards Commissioner, George Hyzler, and asked him to look into the case.
“I would like to formally request for you to investigate this case to ensure that no ethical standards have been breached,” Thake wrote to Hyzler.
“I remain fully open to explaining my position and providing all the paperwork necessary.
"I fully respect your Office which is why I would like to personally insist on an investigation to ensure that my company’s actions do not compromise my position as an MP.”
The Labour Party has argued that Thake’s situation – which it misleadingly described as “tax evasion” - presents his party leader Bernard Grech with a credibility problem, as Grech himself had problems with the taxman in the past.
“He should not accept the twisted excuses that his MP gave to Times of Malta,” the party said.
But the PN has stood by Thake, rebutting in a statement of its own that prime minister Robert Abela was being hypocritical by seeking to shield one of his own MPs who was caught with “up to €1 million in unexplained wealth” – a reference to Ian Castaldi Paris.
Castaldi Paris said he would not be seeking reelection after Times of Malta reported that a tax probe into his affairs revealed hundreds of thousands in undeclared income.
Thake’s situation differs, as it concerns unpaid VAT that was not concealed from the taxman.
The PN ended its defence of Thake with a broadside aimed at the prime minister.
“If he wants to be credible, Robert Abela should publish his income in 2016, which he has so far failed to do. He might also want to ensure that all his properties and boats are declared, as they should be,” the party said without elaborating further.