Another method of tax evasion – and an extensive one at that – through abusive use of an e-commerce platform, was identified by the auditors of the Independent Public Revenue Authority.
It’s about global platformthrough which producers of every industry display and sell their products, such as jewelry, shoes, handicrafts, bags, clothing, decorative items and home furnishings, toys, artwork, art prints, vintage products, etc., not excluding mass-produced products .
How it works
The platform charges a percentage of the final sale value on each transaction made, a general fee every two months per product code listed and displayed, and other fees for seller services such as displayed listings, payment processing, shipping label purchases.
Purchases and payments of products and partially processing the shipment of products are completed through the platform. The respective store is responsible for issuing sales documents through the platform.
How was the check done?
After extensive research and analysis, the auditors of AADE have identified on this platform shops of Greek merchants/creators with a significant amount of sales.
Using special tools, the average selling price of the products was determined, taking into account the quantities sold and the selling price of the most popular product codes per seller.
An estimate was then made of the total US dollar revenue from sales made, by entity, since the start of the partnership.
At the same time, an attempt was made to identify sales of the same creators on other platforms and through extensive searches and cross-references with various information on the internet, the audit managed to identify most of the Greek stores from those that were initially identified.
At the same time, using the platform’s invoicing data to Greek companies, for the services it offers them, which the platform declared in the VIES system, the auditors gained access to the corresponding client base of the platform in Greece and identified companies that could not be identified initially .
Through the commission amounts, resulting from the intra-community deliveries of the platform, the estimated gross income of the sellers/creators was determined.
The estimated sales value was then cross-referenced with the cumulative declared revenues of all years, as they were obtained either through the income tax returns or through the submitted periodic VAT returns, for the cases where the deadline for submitting the current year’s income tax returns is not had passed.
Therefore, thanks to the declaration of transactions by the platform, for the supplies it received from the Greek companies, the audit was able to detect differences in the transactions that the Greek companies failed to include in the VAT returns.
In the first phase, the TINs they presented were selected for verification differences of more than 200,000 euros.
Overall, they were targeted 25 AFM and 16 audits have already been completed.
What did the auditors find?
The hidden matter from the completion of these 16 checks exceeds 8.5 million euroswhile it is worth noting that in some cases the existence of activity was established through the platform, before the declaration of commencement of work in the tax register.
Indicatively, the following cases are mentioned:
1) In business based in Thessaloniki and the object of activity is the wholesale-retail trade of lighting fixtures, it was established, for the years 2019-2023, that 8,107 receipts or invoices were not issued or were inaccurately issued, net worth 2.8 million euros.
2) In a sole proprietorship at southern suburbs of Athenswhose business is jewelry trade, it was found that an unknown amount of tax information, for the period 2018-2022, was not issued, net worth 2.13 million euros.
3) In three self-interested companies, based in the wider area Eastern Attica and object of activity is the jewelry trade, it was found for the years 2018-2022, the non-issuance of an unspecified number of receipts, net worth 810,000 euros.
4) In a sole proprietorship, based in Athens and subject of activity the manufacture of imitation jewelry and related items, it was established, for the years 2018-2022, the non-issue of an unspecified amount of tax data, net worth 680,000 euros.
Income tax and VAT accrual has been launched for audited companies.
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