- European prosecutors arrested four people and froze about €20.5 million in assets in a cross-border VAT fraud probe involving online sales of new mobile phones.
- Authorities allege the VAT margin scheme, intended for second-hand goods, was improperly used for new handsets by routing them through companies in Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Germany before sale by German online retailers.
- The alleged structure let the phones be sold with VAT charged only on dealers’ margins instead of full sale prices, creating below-market pricing and estimated VAT losses of more than €15.7 million.
- Searches were conducted in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, and Cyprus, with bank accounts, phones, and luxury watches seized; €3.3 million had already been recovered from one company.
- The case is part of continued EPPO scrutiny of mobile-phone VAT fraud schemes, following earlier investigations into similar cross-border and carousel frauds.
Source: mobilenewscwp.co.uk
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
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