David Thake breached ethics over unpaid VAT, commissioner concludes

David Thake breached parliament’s ethical standards by failing to declare his shareholding in a company and by falling behind on his companies’ tax payments, the standards commissioner has concluded. 

Thake, a former Nationalist Party MP, quit parliament earlier this year after Times of Malta revealed that his companies owed hundreds of thousands of euro in unpaid VAT. 

He had initially suspended himself from the PN but and asked parliament’s standards commissioner, George Hyzler, to investigate his affairs. 

Thake had argued that the money owed to the taxman was in the form of VAT payments that were deferred through a COVID-19 aid scheme for businesses. 

“The VAT owed was not accumulated over the 10 years [when the accounts were not filed], they are from during the pandemic. These deferred taxes need to be paid not only by my business, but all businesses who made use of the scheme", Thake said at the time. 

Labour Party candidate – now MP – Cressida Galea had also written to Hyzler to ask him to investigate Thake’s financial affairs, following the Times of Malta report. 

In his probe, Hyzler found that Thake’s companies had failed to file the proper paperwork for periods...