UPDATE: Maltese notary arrested in Spain: wife insists that it is for a 'minor issue'

In a statement issued by the Secretariat for Small Businesses, it was explained that a European Arrest Warrant was issued by the Malta Police and Notary Pierre Falzon was arrested on Saturday in Marbella, Spain.

But late tonight a distraught Mrs Falzon, wife to Notary Falzon told MaltaToday that her husband was very sick.

"He was arrested because he was called as  witness and did not appear, that is all," she claimed.

She added that her husband was not involved in any fraud and there was some tax dues amounting to only Euros 200,000. 

"You should check your facts before publishing," she concluded.

But the original story in MaltaToday had reported that the unregistered deeds  inserted in the government's books, was recently discussed in a meeting between parliamentary secretary Jason Azzopardi, Dr Cora Vella Chief notary to government and Lija mayor and notary Ian Castaldi Paris, who is representing a number of clients whose stamp duties have not been paid by their notary.

MaltaToday had broken the story on the investigations and that deeds signed before Notary Falzon had not been registered since 2000.

“The normal citizen does not have the option of paying the tax directly to government as the present law only allows the notary to pay the tax. Therefore the government should be flexible in cases when notaries do not perform this duty,” Castaldi Paris told MaltaToday.

One of the proposals under the government’s consideration is that in case of people who are able to show evidence that they paid the tax to the notary but this tax was never paid, the government would allow the said contracts to be registered/enrolled immediately while the tax would be paid at a later stage. 

Castaldi Paris is proposing that the tax is repaid when the property is sold, when the purchaser dies and is inherited or over a period of yearly installments.

“By this mechanism, waters will start to calm down as at least people's minds will be put at rest and there will not be any panic or financial pressures for people to raise funds to pay the tax again which they would have already paid,” Castaldi Paris told MaltaToday.

Another proposal being considered by the government is that in case of  contracts which were not registered by a  notary, no government architect should be  sent to inspect the property if these are registered today.

Another proposal regards a waiving of penalties on failure to register causa mortis deeds. Presently there is an obligation for the heirs to pay succession duty within 1 year from date of death of a relative.  Failure to do so incurs an annual penalty.  Castaldi Paris is presently dealing with cases whereby an heir declared the duty in front of a Notary, paid the succession duty, but the Notary never registered or paid the duty. 

Last month a government spokesperson confirmed that Notary Pierre Falzon is being investigated by the police for fraud.  But the notary denied charges while admitting not registering ‘some contracts’ due to health reasons. 

Falzon promised to settle any pending matters caused by his absence from Malta in the next few days.