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Hospitality and construction are frontrunners in tax evasion

Hospitality and construction are frontrunners in tax evasion

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Most of the tax fraud took place in the beverage wholesale trade, in the catering trade and in construction. Black sheep were also found in the service sector. This was announced by VP Finance Minister Magnus Brunner at a press conference on Thursday – the tax investigation with its 160 employees is part of his department.

In the previous year they carried out 264 house searches and 10 phone taps. In addition, there were 529 account openings and four arrests.

Upper Austrian cleaning company in the sights of the investigators

An example from Upper Austria shows that the investigators are also dealing with fraud with corona aid and short-time work: After an anonymous report, a cleaning company was scrutinized. The company, which had received around three million euros in Covid subsidies, sent a large part of its employees on short-time work. However, the cleaning company’s sales and profits in 2020 were almost as high as in the previous year – orders had been passed on to subcontractors and sub-subcontractors.

Their employees were remunerated “black” through the (bogus) company network and registered only slightly or not at all for social security. Due to their officially low income, they were wrongly able to receive social benefits. In the course of the fraud, the state was cheated out of part of the corporation tax, capital gains tax and payroll taxes. The investigators also assume that the cleaning company has at least partially stolen the Covid funding.

The tax investigators in Vienna also found what they were looking for: financial criminal proceedings in the amount of around 300,000 euros were initiated against a catering business. A cash register programmer who had created software that could be manipulated brought the investigators on to the company’s trail. This enabled the subsequent deletion of transactions from the cash register system.

VAT fraud in online sales

In 2022, a total of 30 million euros in back payments were collected. In addition, there could be further penalties of 60 million euros if the maximum penalty is imposed in each case. In the past year, the department in the Ministry of Finance was particularly concerned with combating national and international sales tax fraud: “Increased criminal activities can be identified in the area of ​​​​cross-border sales tax carousel fraud in the automotive industry in the luxury sector and in dietary supplements for the fitness industry. and cleaning industry noticeable,” said the head of the tax investigation, Christian Ackerler.

For example, a 63-year-old online shop operator waived the payment of sales tax: the man sold food supplements and drug-like products to Austria and Germany. However, the sales tax did not appear on any invoice. The investigators became aware of the fraud because the Austrian paid commissions to German doctors who referred him in cash. A Dutch company also appeared as the seller of the products, the goods allegedly came from the USA. However, the actual shipping took place from a warehouse in Vienna. In this case, 11 house searches were carried out and 19 accounts were opened. The anticipated additional demand is around 400,000 euros.

Source: Nachrichten

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