Final Word from Thursday, December 3, 2015
The invoice-matching tax system that takes effect for businesses in Jan. is based on the assumption that every business owner is a potential criminal. The presumption of innocence is thrown out the window. For the first time, businesses will need to report all incoming and outgoing invoices to the government, thereby exposing many of their trade secrets to tax officials. For some reason, business owners are supposed to trust these officials not to abuse the information. If all business owners are presumed by the state to be potential criminals, why is it unreasonable for business owners to assume that the underpaid employees of tax offices are also all potential criminals? Or their bosses at the finance ministry? The database that is compiled from this will be one of the most valuable commercial-intelligence assets in the country. Perhaps the only such asset with more value are the files of StB agents that were "shredded" after Nov. 1989. [Czech Republic kontrolní hlášení VAT value-added tax spy spies]
Glossary of difficult words
invoice-matching system - known in Czech as "kontrolní hlášení";
underpaid - paid less than is due for the type of work performed;
to compile - to collect (information) in order to produce something from it;
commercial intelligence - the process or result of defining, gathering, analyzing and distributing accurate and relevant information regarding the products, customers, competitors, business environment and internal structure of an organization.