The chairman of SATA’s board of directors said on Tuesday that there is no “financial engineering” at the company and that accounting for deferred taxes as income has been a practice in the past and is used by several European companies.
In the Parliament of the Azores, Teresa Gonçalves stated that “historically, the company has always accounted for deferred tax assets on tax losses.”
The CEO of Azorean Airlines assured that, unlike in the past, there are two important issues that in 2022 “determined that the SATA board of directors registered this year.” One of them refers to an amendment to the law on the state budget for 2023, which “abolishes the time limit for reporting tax losses.”
“Another pertinent issue that did not exist in the past is that the prospect of recovering tax losses was based on projections of future revenues to be generated from tax results between 2023 and 2025, as approved in the restructuring plan of the European commissions. “, he added.
Teresa Gonçalves was summoned on Tuesday to the Economic Commission of the Regional Parliament at the initiative of BE/Açores.
Bloc MP António Lima recently stated that “the clear positive dynamics that can be seen in the SATA results in 2022 is due to the use of financial engineering that has artificially improved the results, namely by registering deferred taxes as income.”
“Inspector [PWC] does not object to the recognition of deferred tax assets, and there are doubts only about the total amount, which will depend on the future development of the business. And that is the only question that is being raised, it is no more,” Teresa Gonçalves said.
The manager said that only deferred tax assets were taken into account for tax losses up to a limit of 15 years in the case of Azores Airlines and 11 years in the case of SATA Air Açores. “It is assumed that these assets will be used within the specified time frame,” he said.
Teresa Gonçalves stressed that “major European airlines with tax rules similar to the SATA group have also registered deferred tax assets for tax losses, as is the case with Lufthansa, the Iberia group, Easyjet, Air France/KLM and TAP.”
“It would be bad if the government allowed companies, public or private, to use this mechanism, and they do not. The accounts comply with all legal standards, as emphasized in the ROC. [revisor oficial de contas] and auditor in SATA reports. There is no wrongfulness in the SATA reports, but rather a difference in accounting judgments regarding the quantification of tax loss recovery,” he said.
According to the representative, since 2014, in the reports of auditors and the ROC there is a clause on the registration of these taxes in terms of tax losses.
“From at least 2014 to 2019, the auditor’s and ROC’s caveat was fair in terms of quantifying what was wrong in accounting and it was concluded that the results were overstated in the exact amount of the total recognition of the deferred tax asset. tax losses,” he explained.
Bloc MP António Lima, in turn, believes that “the main problem is that the results in 2022 will worsen” in the SATA group, ensuring that the topic “taxes was not considered illegal by anyone” but “may be imprudent.” “.
Antonio Lima felt that “the results are inflated, as the auditor says” and contrary to what the CEO of SATA says, because “looking at the numbers, it’s not what you see”.
Ebitda (net operating income plus depreciation and amortization) will “worse in 2022,” he added.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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