The New York Post reported, in 2011, that the Tax Authority has organized sting operations in which tax officers posed as new restaurants seeking equipment. Most ECR/POS salesmen they encountered mentioned that they could provide options to evade tax:
- Agent 1: Yeah, I bet you have. So you end up putting cash in your pocket? Is there a way that we can take cash out of have without reporting that, so that we don’t have to put all of our cash into the system?
- Salesman: What do you mean without reporting it? … So let’s–you’re saying you want to take cash out of the cash drawer but not let the system know? … Yes, there is a way to do it.… But that you have to manage–, we have to do it on the database; we have to change the database. And that we would not in this part, in the front end of the program.
- Agent 2: Is that difficult or straight-forward?
- Salesman: A little bit difficult, not like, not something that’s like really simple but it would require something like not.
- Agent 2: Reprogramming?
- Agent 1: Do you charge extra for that?
- Salesman: Yes, we would. We have to charge extra. … Well, we would have to do it. We would have to do like, let’s say every half a year you want to do it, so you call us, we come in–
- Agent 1: Right. How long would it take?
- Salesman: That way we charge by the hour. Like $65 for the hour. .… take no more than three hours at max. … But it does require some like some time to change the database.
- Agent 1: That’s right. So you have to do that. So what–what about our records I don’t know if we should talk about this at the bar. If we get a visit from the audit people, does it show or, if, because we paid you, does it show–
- Salesman: No, we won’t show in here. … We wouldn’t do it in the program itself; we would have to just manually change on the databases.
- Agent 1: Is it like the server in the back (house).
- Salesman: Yes.
More? Transcript is available on demand, please request.
Progress analysis in NY: updated here.
In 2008, Norwegian documentary “Nattens Konger” or ‘Night Kings’ actors have setup the same kind of sting operation and for the first time revealed how some equipment dealers easily offer option to their customers to cheat the taxman. For more info on documentary contact our administrator.
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