The Unit for Economic and Computer Crime at SVR Skopje submitted a criminal report to the Public Prosecutor’s Office Skopje against a legal entity from Skopje and against its owner and former responsible person, M.S. from Skopje, due to reasonable grounds to suspect the commission of the criminal offences “Tax Evasion” under Article 279 and “Damaging or Privileging Creditors” under Article 257 of the Criminal Code.
Namely, the first suspect M.S., in the period from 01.10.2019 to 31.08.2021, acted contrary to Articles 40 and 43 of the Law on Value Added Tax by calculating and reporting a lower tax liability in his tax filings for the audited tax period, in the amount of 17,645,477.00 denars, which resulted from unrecorded turnover generated from the sale of fixed assets and sale of material inventories in a total value without VAT of 103,969,681.00 denars. Likewise, the first suspect acted contrary to Articles 84 and 92 of the Law on Personal Income Tax by treating the current value of fixed assets and the purchase value of material inventories during tax control as unrecorded turnover from the sale of fixed assets and materials, in a total value of 121,615,158.00 denars with VAT calculated. Based on this amount, unpaid personal income tax in the value of 13,788,045.00 denars was determined.
By failing to declare and calculate revenue and VAT obligations in the amount of 17,645,477.00 denars, as well as failing to calculate and pay personal income tax in the amount of 13,788,045.00 denars, the suspect gained unlawful financial profit on two grounds in a total amount of 31,433,522.00 denars, or approximately 515,303.00 euros, causing financial damage to the Budget of the Republic of North Macedonia.
Furthermore, from the beginning of 2020 until the opening of the bankruptcy procedure against the now-bankrupt debtor, the suspect carried out unrecorded disposal of fixed assets and material inventories in a total value of 103,969,681.00 denars. This sale, treated by the tax authority as unrecorded turnover, prevented these assets from being properly listed by the bankruptcy trustee. In this way, the suspect prevented these assets from entering the bankruptcy estate of the debtor, directly contributing to significant damage to the bankruptcy estate and harming the creditors in the bankruptcy procedure with filed and verified claims, including the state through the Ministry of Finance, the Public Revenue Office, several banks based on granted loans, and multiple legal entities with verified claims from the bankruptcy estate.