This was announced by the Ministry of Finance on Saturday. The company founder was sentenced to a fine of 1.8 million and a suspended prison sentence of 15 months. A total of 12 million euros in unpaid taxes and duties were collected, according to the Ministry of Finance. The company’s name was not given.
After investigations by the public prosecutor’s office, the tax investigators carried out house searches and audits at the real estate group based in Linz, Kitzbühel and Vienna. Among other things, a “V account” was found for executives and employees, with which fees were paid out without income tax deduction and instead of wages, benefits in kind such as company apartments were distributed without taking into account a benefit in kind.
Fictitious accounts, cheap cars
The submission of private bills for payment by the employer was also made possible. In addition, there were fictitious travel expense accounts and expense accounts. For years it was possible for the leading employees of the group of companies and also for their customers to lease cars with German license plates at a low tax rate. For this purpose, a company subsidiary with a fictitious company headquarters in Munich was installed.
Wages paid black
Even the erection of private houses was smuggled into the accounts of individual companies in the group and partly passed on to co-ownership companies managed by the group. In the case of real estate sales and commissions, undeclared payments were accepted in cash. These collected funds were transferred in a tax-friendly way and invested in Switzerland. In a restaurant run by the group of companies, sales were systematically reduced by up to 50 percent and wages were paid out on the black.
In the proceedings at the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters, in addition to the six accused, eight GmbHs from the group of companies were also tried. Association fines of 780,000 euros were finally imposed on these companies.
Source: Nachrichten
