The Tax Compliance Unit (TCU) is a semi-autonomous specialised unit within the Ministry for Finance
specifically aimed at addressing tax evasion and tax fraud. The roles and functions of the TCU
complement and support the investigative and enforcement capacities of the Office of the
Commissioner for Revenue. The TCU exercises its powers mainly through the actual conduct of
detailed tax audits and also through exhaustive sectoral and/or specific information collated from
various sources and residing within the Unit’s Data Warehouse. In fact, the TCU's mission statement
is as follows:
"To collect and analyse information and conduct tax audits that will
ensure all members of the community pay their fair share of tax."
Functions
The Tax Compliance Unit's principal functions are the following:
- To complement and support the investigative functions of the Office of the Commissioner for
Revenue including all direct and indirect taxes, customs and when applicable social security.
- To collect information on individual taxpayers and business sectors from the widest possible
sources and to process this information into structured and integrated data on
taxpayer/business entities. This integrated data enables the compilation of business profiles
and risk analysis both at an individual level as well as on a sectoral basis.
- To conduct research into the earning patterns of various economic operators within business
sectors in order to establish industry benchmarks.
- The Tax Compliance Unit does not have a tax collection function. Hence, the issuing of tax
assessments (following an audit) and the collection of tax and penalties/interest thereon
remains the function of the Office of the Commissioner for Revenue on whose behalf the tax
audit is carried out.
Opening Hours
Winter: 8.00a.m. to 12.00p.m. and 1.30pm to 4.00p.m.
Summer: 8.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.