Lesya Karnaukh: State Tax Service identified 7 retail chains that evaded taxes due to the "business fragmentation"

State Tax Service identified 7 retail chains that evaded taxes through the "business fragmentation" scheme. 

Budget lost 668.5 million UAH of the VAT due to its use. All materials were transferred to the Bureau of Economic Security. 

This was informed by acting Head of the State Tax Service Lesya Karnaukh on the Facebook page. 

"These are 6 networks that sold household appliances and electronics, as well as one that sold women’s clothing and footwear. Legal entity artificially divided its activities among dozens of individuals-entrepreneurs who work on the simplified taxation system. Total of 491 such individuals-entrepreneurs were identified. Their total income is more than 4 billion UAH" – she noted. 

Formally, everything was supposedly distributed between separate, supposedly independent, entrepreneurs. However, conducted analytical researches, as well as actual tax audits, showed otherwise. Individuals-entrepreneurs are interconnected: they use the same IP addresses, have common registration places, work in the same retail outlets, use the same trademark and even have common employees.

"We will have to answer for the games with fragmentation of big business in order to evade taxes. As this is not optimization, but manipulation" – emphasized Lesya Karnaukh.