Wouldn't it be nice if bureaucracy ever worked FOR you....?
So a friend of mine back in Portugal informed me I'd had my first piece of mail there since in over half a year since I moved back to the U.K.
And it was apparently a letter from the Portuguese tax authority telling me they're taking me to court because of my non payment of car tax, the IUC tax, which was due in March this year.
Which would be fine other than for the fact that I re-imported my car to the UK back in October 2022, where it's been registered and taxed since.
Obviously informing the authorities in Portugal of this fact was on 'literally no way I'm ever getting around to doing this list', especially since I'd hoped to sell my house by this point, at which time I've nothing to do with the country, formally, at all!
Also there's the fact that the UK authorities know my car is re-imported and taxed, there's a damned website anyone can access that's public to prove this and it really shouldn't be that difficult for two large nation states to have record keeping systems that simply talk to each other and mutually update this kind of information!
However now I'm in the situation of thinking I'd better tell them I owe them nothing as it might come back on me somehow when I sell my house, I mean it might not, but I do get paranoid about these things - fines, taxes, profits from properties, I'd rather be free of any risk of having any money sucked out or funds frozen.
The reason for not bothering is Portuguese bureaucracy and the language barrier - It's such a hassle navigating who to inform, but I've now found a form....
I'll probably get a message back saying to tell someone else the same information, but at least I'm on the case now!
Probably being paranoid, although TBF life is just easier doing this in this case as it is the damned truth, I do owe them nothing.
Damned bureaucracy!
Bureaucracy should be more concerned with the interests of the people it is supposed to serve than its own interests.
For sure I agree!
Welcome to Portuguese bureaucracy 🤦♂️
Bureaucracy is usually just a monumental waste of time and resources... primarily designed to keep some civil servant in a job!
I don't know about Portugal, but my parents passed away in Spain and the paperwork was insane. And "official" bills showed up long after the fact, too... which I was advised to pay, in case I ever were to set foot in Spain again, because my name might be attached with some flag for "illegal activity" for all eternity.
Bureaucracy is truly hateful!
that sounds corrupt AF to me!
I'm not sure governments are that vindictive, but we can't know if they flag people up across the system. I hope you can get this resolved. I expect there were all sorts of things to sign off when you came back. I don't think it was too bad when I came back from a couple of years in Germany, but then I never owned any property and I sold the cars I bought out there, so I was not bringing much back.
Maybe things would be a little easier if the UK had not decided to cut some ties with the rest of the continent ;)
I didn't wanna go all Brexit smug, but if you insist!
That was my thought, too, but at the same time, these sorts of systems just grow. One place I worked, staff went about making everything as complicated as possible (a community organisation that was about improving access 🙂). When I asked them why, there seemed to be some idea that you weren't allowed (by whom, I don't know) to make it as easy as possible, as that didn't look proper. (That's right, I don't work there now).
That sounds like it's the kind of place you're better of out of for sure!
boo!
Good risk management.
Portugal is a bureaucracy nightmare, our government has a way of overcomplicating everything that could (and should!) be simplified. Give me a shout if you need any help with translations! ;)
Thanks for the offer I will keep it in mind!