Platforms of order betray them enterprises who do not issue receipts. The traces they leave behind are now easy to follow. tax service and, as the data shows, these are cases of major tax evasion. In particular, AADE constantly receives information from order sites, which is compared with retail receipts that have been issued for specific orders, and thus it is possible to identify companies that tax evaders.

Inside the country, AADE does not need to conclude contracts with customer companies, it simply requests information and immediately receives it, while abroad the tax office concludes contracts, as it has already done with the press. platforms Airbnb. However, the control extends to online sales as well. In particular, last week the auditors identified a company selling shoes via the Internet. They requested and received data from two major courier companies and a well-known digital platform. They examined the company’s bank account and book movements and found that 2.8 million euros of receipts had not been issued, which means that the state lost 542,000 euros in VAT plus income tax, which it never paid for this turnover.

In the previous days, the special AADE algorithm worked again and “issued” an order for the control of 14 catering establishments, which, as a result of the control, found that they did not issue receipts for a total of 5.15 million euros. Audits are targeted, i.e. audited enterprises are selected using a special risk analysis algorithm. Based on data obtained by AADE from delivery platforms, it was found that 14 food service establishments did not cut 449,000 receipts for orders totaling €5.15 million. In other words, these companies collected from their customers, but did not return to the tax authorities 592,000 euros of VAT!

The most important cases of tax evasion are:

• A cafe in Crete for 2019-2020 did not file income tax and VAT returns, hiding income totaling 1,440,000 euros.

• In a restaurant in the central area of ​​Athens, between 2019 and 2021, it was found that 91,300 tax items were not issued for a total net worth of 685,000 euros.

AADE produces “sea bass” using data from order platforms and short-term rentals.

• In a pancake shop in Epirus, between 2017 and 2019, it was found that 92,800 tax returns were not issued hiding taxable material in the amount of 400,000 euros.

• In a pancake shop in Thessaly between 2018 and 2020, 40,400 tax data were found to be unpublished, hiding €285,000 worth of taxable material.

• In a cafeteria in Thessaloniki, between 2018 and 2020, it was found that 42,530 tax returns were not issued for a total of 270,000 euros in hidden material.

Renting on Airbnb

As mentioned above, the cooperation of the tax office with the platforms is permanent, and in some cases there are also agreements. In this context, the main goal of AADE is to identify undeclared income from short-term rentals, since huge amounts are being sold, and after a year of stagnation, short-term rentals are showing impressive growth.

What is written in the E2 form will be compared with the data received from the platforms Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO, as stipulated in the protocol of cooperation signed by them. In cases where it is determined that the property was not declared in the Short Term Property Register or posted on digital platforms without a clear indication of the Short Term Property Registry (SMA) number, Special Operation Mark (ESL) or Unique Notice Number (UIN), then details are sent to the DOE real estate, and managers and owners are called to the tax office to give explanations.

The agreement has been in place since 2021 and stipulates that in order for a property owner or property manager to register their property on the above platforms, they must provide the property registration number held in the AADE Short Term Rental Registry. Objects that will be “uploaded” to the platform without a corresponding number will be automatically rejected by the system. Thus, the tax inspectorate will know exactly the amount of real estate leased, as well as the income that the owner-manager receives.