Chains of home appliance stores have gotten by by including audiobooks in checks to reduce taxes.
A well-known chain of household appliance stores evaded tax payments of 57 million hryvnias, including the alleged sale of audiobooks on receipt. The press service of the Bureau of Economic Security reported this on Friday, December 8.
According to the investigation, company officials artificially lowered VAT when selling home appliances and electronics to consumers.
In financial receipts, cashiers reduced the value of taxable goods and at the same time added e-books, services for smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc. on the receipt. Because, according to the Tax Code, they are not subject to taxation. The total amount of the check remained unchanged.
The BEB explained that in this way the retailer underestimates the positive value of the difference between the amount of tax liability and the amount of tax credit paid to the state budget. As a result, the company underpaid more than 57 million hryvnias in taxes.
Based on this fact, criminal proceedings were initiated under articles Avoidance of taxes, fees (mandatory payments).
Earlier, Economic Truth wrote that customers of at least two chains of stores that sell home goods – Foxtrot and COMFY – have complained about audiobooks being added to their checks. He sold audiobooks along with promotional products and the Allo network.
A law was passed in 2022 On amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine on exemption from value added tax of operations for the supply of Ukrainian-language audiobooks. The benefit was introduced to stimulate the popularization of Ukrainian-language content, but in practice, some businesses used it to avoid taxes.
We would like to remind you that earlier BEB detectives in the Kyiv region, together with border guards, exposed a scheme for tax evasion when importing drugs. The State Tax Service of Kyiv discovered a network of sex shops that evaded taxes.
Source: korrespondent
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