Major success for the Anti-Fraud Office in Europe-wide operation Duty arrears totalling two million euros uncovered
The Anti-Fraud Office (ABB) has successfully participated in a cross-border European operation to uncover fraud in the "online trade in goods". The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) coordinated several operations in a total of 13 EU Member States. Large quantities of goods as well as sums of money totalling several millions were seized. Numerous arrests were also reported.
"Tax evasion not only harms the state, but also honest taxpayers. That is why tax evasion is being consistently combated using state-of-the-art methods. This is a question of justice," said Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer.
In total, house searches were carried out at 60 locations and seizures were made at 40 warehouses. In Austria, 20 task forces carried out investigations at three different locations in Vienna. The ICFI (International Cooperation in Fiscal Criminal Investigation) team from the Central Office for International Cooperation (ZIZ) of the ABB cooperated with the Tax Fraud Investigation Unit and 20 police officers. The investigators came across a number of data carriers, which they forwarded to the EPPO in Latvia for analysis.
Based on the contents found, the ABB carried out external audits at the entrepreneurs concerned. These were carried out in close cooperation with experts for value added tax measures with a foreign connection (UMA) from the Graz-Stadt office of the Austrian tax office and the Central Liaison Office (CLO) of the ZIZ.
Thanks to the efficient cooperation and the rapid completion of the audits, an additional tax claim of around two million euros was legally established against the tax debtors in custody in Latvia. The Republic of Austria - with the close cooperation of the Departments of the Graz City Office - was already able to successfully claim these damages in the first court hearing in Riga.