Another method of tax evasion – and an extensive one at that – through abusive use of an e-commerce platform, has been identified by auditors of the Independent Public Revenue Authority.
This is a global platform, through which producers from every sector promote and sell their products, such as jewelry, shoes, handicrafts, handbags, clothing, clothing, home decoration and furniture, toys, artwork, artistic 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 commission every two months per product code listed and viewed, as well as other fees for seller services such as viewed listings, payment processing, and shipping label purchases.
Product purchases and payments and partial processing of product shipments are completed through the platform. The individual store is responsible for issuing sales documents via the platform.
How the audit was carried out
After extensive research and analysis, the AADE auditors identified stores of Greek merchants/creators with a significant amount of sales on this platform. 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.
Next, an estimate was made of the total sales revenue in US dollars, by entity, since the start of the collaboration.
At the same time, an effort was made to identify sales of the same creators on other platforms and through extensive searches and cross-checks with various information on the internet, the audit managed to identify most of the Greek stores from those initially identified.
At the same time, by utilizing the platform’s invoicing data to Greek businesses for the services it offers, which the platform declared to the VIES system, the auditors gained access to the platform’s respective clientele in Greece and identified businesses that could not be identified initially.
Through the commission amounts resulting from the platform’s intra-community supplies, the estimated gross revenues of the sellers/creators were determined.
The estimated value of sales was then cross-checked with the cumulative declared revenues for all years, as derived either through income tax returns or through the submitted periodic VAT returns, for those cases where the deadline for submitting income tax returns for the current year had not passed.
Therefore, thanks to the declaration of transactions by the platform for the supplies it received from Greek businesses, the audit was able to identify differences in the transactions that Greek businesses failed to include in their VAT returns.
In the first phase, VAT numbers that showed differences of more than 200,000 euros were selected for audit. In total, 25 VAT numbers were targeted and 16 audits have already been completed.
What the auditors found
The concealed material from the completion of these 16 audits exceeds €8.5 million, while it is worth noting that in some cases it was found that in some cases the existence of activity through the platform was established before the declaration of the start of business in the tax register.
Indicatively, the following cases are mentioned:
1) In a company based in Thessaloniki the object of activity is the wholesale-retail trade of lighting fixtures, it was established, for the financial years 2019-2023, that 8,107 receipts or invoices, with a net value of 2.8 million euros, were not issued or were issued incorrectly.
2) In a sole proprietorship in the southern suburbs of Athens, with the activity of the jewelry trade, it was found that an unknown number of tax documents were not issued, for the period 2018-2022, with a net value of 2.13 million euros.
3) In three companies of their interests, based in the wider region of eastern Attica and engaged in the trade of jewelry, it was found that for the years 2018-2022, the non-issuance of an unknown number of receipts, with a net value of 810,000 euros.
4) In a sole proprietorship, based in Athens and the object of activity is the manufacture of imitation jewelry and related items, it was found, for the years 2018-2022, the non-issuance of an indeterminate number of tax receipts, with a net value of 680,000 euros.
For the audited companies, the assessment of income tax and VAT has been initiated.
