AADE probes internet data
Next big fish caught in the net is a TV show presenter who also ran a telesales company
Online transactions and new technologies facilitate the work of the audit mechanism to curb tax evasion.
Online information retrieval platforms such as Booking.com, Airbnb, food delivery platforms and courier services provide auditors with new valuable information.
The overexposure of influencers, especially during the pandemic, has led the regulator to focus its attention on social media, specifically Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Essentially, their strong social media activity to sell the products they advertise has brought them into the limelight, with early results being impressive. Now the tax administration has on its side the followers, the viewers and also the courier companies.
The network of “new auditors” available to AADE amounts to hundreds of thousands and has spread online. This way, the tax officials collect all the necessary data identifying tax evasion from their offices. Then inspection squads carry out checks at the offices of specific taxpayers as well as online stores to identify and record violations.
In February the tax administration was reorganized, creating two new directorates, including one dealing exclusively with e-commerce and social media tax evasion.
The recent revelation of a well-known influencer and model was just the beginning, AADE reports. The intensification of online controls is a priority of AADE head Giorgos Pitsilis, as tax evasion seems rampant. So after the influencer, there was a TV presenter, who at the same time owns a telemarketing company. Following consumer complaints, AADE auditors began monitoring the business’ trading behavior. They requested details of the deliveries from the courier company with which the business worked and found that, for four years, 12,000 receipts, with a total value of 400,000 euros, had not been declared. They also found that the presenter did not formally appear as a shareholder of the company, but had put forward his mother. The prescribed fines have already been imposed, while both the business for the remaining uses and he and his mother are being investigated for any other tax violations.
