Tax evasion Archives

December 31, 2024

Targeted tax inspections bear fruit: more than 1356 sales locations temporarily closed in Serbia

In the first half of the year, and especially during the summer period, the Tax Administration of Serbia conducted a large number of targeted visits to sales locations.

Summer is a period when many fairs, catering, music, and tourist events are held. It is a time when everyone feels relaxed, especially since a large number of these events take place in open spaces. During this period, the Tax Authority intensifies field controls to determine how taxpayers behave in the fiscalization process.

June 19, 2024

Celebrating 70 years of VAT

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the VAT – the tax which represents the highest percentage in tax revenues for governments around the world. For some countries, it can be as high as 37% to 40% of the countries’ total yearly collection earnings.

However, this tax would never have existed if, on April 10^th 1954, a man in France named Maurice Lauré did not have the vision to create a tax that would not tax the turnover but the added value produced by companies. This vision has clearly been a huge success, so much so that the VAT has even been widely referred to as the “fiscal Grail”.

May 24, 2024

Morocco fiscalization: Electronic invoicing is slowly finding its way in

Morocco, a country with a population of next to 40 million inhabitants, is slowly but steadily adopting decisive fiscalization practices, expecting to fully embrace them by 2026.

Will they be able to overcome all obstacles and delays they have had since its conception?

December 6, 2022

Finland: warning signals taxi driver’s control by Vero Skatt

This September, the Tax Administration of Finland (Vero Skatt) carried out an action to check compliance of taxi drivers in the context of tax obligations (fiscalization). The action included 850 taxpayers and the potential loss (non-recording cash payment, unaccounted revenue, undeclared pay) was uncovered in the amount of 16 million euros. This is a large amount for this sector of taxpayers and for a relatively short period and relatively small sample.

November 2, 2018

United Kingdom: ESS investigation by HMRC

Since 2010 the government has secured and protected over £185 billion of tax that would otherwise have gone unpaid, and introduced over 100 measures to crack down further on avoidance, evasion, aggressive tax planning and unfair outcome

Budget 2018 has announced that the government will publish a call for evidence in relation to ESS. This means that HMRC are looking to update their methods of monitoring and taxing profits of businesses to ensure they keep pace with the evolving technologies taxpayers utilise.

June 18, 2017

AUSTRALIA: Cash-only businesses beware

The Australian Tax Office announces its plan to protect honest businesses from tax evaders, especially focused on those advertised as “cash-only”.

Focus of the investigation is on those businesses who:

operate and advertise as ‘cash-only’
are part of an industry where cash payments are common
indicate unrealistic income relative to the assets and lifestyle of the business and owner
fail to register for GST or lodge activity statements or tax returns
under-report transactions and income according to third-party data
fail to pay employment duties
operate outside the normal small business benchmarks for their industry
were reported by the community as potential tax evasion.

This effort can support with evidence found that anti sales suppression system is necessary to be put in place in the near future.

December 27, 2016

USA: Seller of sales suppression software pleads guilty

John Yin of Everett has admitted to fraud and conspiracy charges and agreed to pay more than $3.4 million in restitution after selling software that helped restaurants hide cash sales to reduce their tax payments.

He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Friday to one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the government.

August 23, 2016

New Zealand: 3 years’ jail for evading almost $800,000 in tax

Restaurateur Zai Jian Liang, who runs Tasty Zone Restaurant in East Tamaki, filed 113 incorrect tax returns between 2009 and last year.

An Inland Revenue investigation found Liang and his wife Guan Hong Liang failed to declare more than $1 million in cash sales and about $500,000 in PAYE.

The couple also fraudulently claimed $30,000 in Working for Families tax credits.

May 22, 2016

Tunisia: fiscal cash registers in 2016

Late last year, Mr. Slim Chaker, Tunisian Minister of Finance, announced the changes with the introduction of the fiscal law for the year 2016: “Several decisions will be taken in the year 2016 to fight against tax evasion, including the adoption of cash registers in cafes, restaurants and hotels, to get true amount of sales.” Cash registers should be directly linked to the Ministry of Finance.

The idea is, according to the Minister of Finance to “put pressure on fraudsters and to prompt Tunisian consumer to demand its receipt.”

March 21, 2016

AUSTRIA: Mandatory cash register rule is not in breach of Constitution

The Constitutional Court of Austria has ruled that the reservations submitted by various companies in respect of the mandatory cash register rule prove to be unfounded, and the Court has therefore rejected the petitions filed. Since the mandatory cash register rule is thus not in breach of the Constitution, there is no requirement for any legal amendments on the part of the legislator. All terms of the Austrian Federal Fiscal Code regarding the matter of cash registers remain in force.