MORE ON FINES FOR THE OVER-FIFTIES

Inaccurate reports continue to circulate regarding fines for the over-fifties and other categories subject to the experimental serum mandate, as well as on appealing them.

With the approval of the amendment to Decree-Law 162/2022, all debit notices will be suspended, and along with them, all associated deadlines and collection (enforcement proceedings). Obviously, this also applies to those who have already received debit notices. Challenging the fines today, when they will be suspended in a week's time, is not only pointless but also risky, because appeals could be declared inadmissible and appellants ordered to pay legal costs.

Challenging debit notices is not done via the procedure for opposing an administrative penalty (appeal to the Justice of the Peace), but by a writ of summons. Therefore, there is no deadline for lodging a challenge and there is no need to worry. Indeed, the notices do not specify any deadline for an appeal, as would be mandatory under the rules governing administrative procedure.

It is not true that the amendment merely suspends the service of notices of commencement of penalty proceedings (the initial registered letter); it applies to the entire procedure, including collection (enforcement).

Once the amendment is passed, the Revenue Agency-Collection will no longer be able to take any action, and all deadlines (both for the administration and for citizens) will be suspended until 30 June 2023.

Therefore, anyone who has been served with a debit notice need do nothing until 30 June 2023. Naturally, the notices should NOT be paid, as the sixty-day payment deadline is also suspended.

If the amendment fails to pass—which is highly unlikely—and if by 30 June next year the fines have not been definitively cancelled, as promised, we will provide everyone with a draft writ of summons and instructions on how to challenge debit notices without having to instruct a lawyer.

For now, we must wait. Rushing to follow the advice of those who have not examined the subject in depth and have no experience in this regard is both risky and pointless.