‘No documents’: Tax Commissioner mum on lack of action on PM’s Zejtun property

The Shift has confirmed that the documentation showing the department’s valuation of the two-tumolo ODZ property purchased by Prime Minister Robert Abela does not exist.

Pressed through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by The Shift to provide the documents proving the evaluation was made, as typically happens with properties of such size, Inland Revenue Commissioner Joe Caruana could not provide any.

The tax department’s lack of assessment is of concern due to suspicions that when the prime minister and his wife, Lydia Abela, purchased the property, they declared its value to be €600,000 – the price of a penthouse, if that.

As a result of the FOI request, The Shift acquired the declaration submitted to the tax department by the Abelas, which is being published in full.

It shows they paid only €30,000 in tax. No agent fees were paid because the Abelas purchased the property directly from the owners.

The sprawling fully-detached 2,270 square metre property includes endless gardens, a pool, and a large property built in an Outside Development Zone.

Such properties are no longer easy to acquire in Malta. In 2017 its value was estimated at €2 million.

Tax Commissioner Joe Caruana would not explain why the department did not follow procedure and send one of its architects to assess whether the Abelas had under-declared the value of their property to evade tax.

The tax money the Abelas failed to pay on the property purchase could reach €70,000, apart from penalties on an estimated €2 million value of the property in 2017 by professionals.

The Commissioner failed to give any reassurances that the department had done its work according to law. “The requested documentation is not available,” Caruana replied.

When The Shift asked for the board meeting minutes to determine why and who decided that no architect should be sent to assess the prime minister’s acquisition, the Tax Commissioner said, “such board does not exist and did not exist in 2017”.

According to the Duty of Documents and Transfers Act as well as internal procedures published on the Inland Revenue Department’s website, stamp duty declarations are reviewed by “an internal departmental board which decides whether an architect is sent to inspect the property in order to establish the market value of the property”.

An Inland Revenue architect who assesses property value told The Shift the prime minister’s case was “very strange”.

“With properties of a certain size and value, like the one acquired by Abela, a valuation is usually automatic, irrespective of what the owners declare. Such a large property declared at such a low price is usually a red flag,” the architect said.

The red flags ignored

The Zejtun property, ‘Cinja’, in Triq Xrobb l-Għaġin, acquired by the Abelas, was built in the 1980s in breach of planning laws.

The owners had a permit for a built area of some 190 square metres, but they extended it to 350 square metres and added other structures without a permit.

The lack of permits meant it was difficult for the owners, Joseph and Alfrida Camilleri, who now reside in Marsaskala, to sell the property.

Yet while Robert Abela and his wife Lydia were working as legal consultants for the Planning Authority, raking in some €17,000 a month from an agreement granted to them under a previous PN administration, the couple signed a promise of sale agreement with the Camilleris.

The agreement stated that the Abelas would only purchase the property if and when all illegalities were sanctioned.

Within a few months, the Planning Authority considered an application by the Camilleris to sanction all the illegalities. It gave the green light on 5 July 2017 against payment of a small fine.

Five days later, on 10 July 2017, a contract was signed between the Camilleris and the Abelas to transfer the property.

The Prime Minister has already submitted and acquired a development permit from the Planning Authority to flatten the building and build a new mansion over the two-tumoli ODZ land.

The prime minister still insists that his tax declaration was correct.

Meanwhile, Robert and Lydia Abela have just applied to develop a property in Xewkija, Gozo, into a seven-bedroom property with an indoor pool, spa, and wine cellar. The development would suit a boutique hotel, but the Abelas declared it would be a residential development in their application.