site.btaProsecuting Magistracy Cracks Down on Tax Fraud Scheme

The prosecuting magistracy has cracked down on a large-scale tax fraud scheme in which false documents were used in fictitious transactions with fuel exempt from excise duty. The damage to the state budget amounts to millions of BGN and affects the interests of other parties, Plovdiv District Prosecutor Vanya Hristeva said at a news conference in Sofia on Tuesday. Attending the briefing were also Customs Agency Director General Georgi Dimov and National Revenue Agency Executive Director Rumen Spetsov.

Hristeva explained that companies, taxable persons, have taken advantage of an opportunity allowing exemption from excise duty on goods based on a ratified international treaty with the US, without these companies being entitled to it and by using forged documents. Those companies declared bulk deliveries of diesel fuel (subjected to zero excise duty rates) to a US military base located at the Novo Selo Training Area near Sliven, Southeast Bulgaria.

Numerous searches and seizures took place across Bulgaria on Tuesday, she added. The fraud scheme had been active since 2019.

The prosecuting magistracy’s investigation is being conducted with the assistance of the US.