Revenue agency undertakes checks to combat tax avoidance and evasion

Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency has undertaken inpections at retail outlets across the country on suspicions for tax evasion. The target includes 13 000 companies, which had declared a stock of goods worth 8 billion BGN. Suspicions are that 20% of this amount, which is one billion and 600 million BGN, may turn out to not have been paid to the state treasury.

The tax checks start from Sofia, from a shop in the city centre. There are visibly expensive goods on the shop windows. The company has no warehouses, only 3 shops. The value of its inventories is a six-figure amount, NRA says. According to them, it amounts to nearly 2 million BGN. So inspectors are checking if there are goods worth 2 million in the shops. They have initiated stock-taking, to check every item: clothes, watches etc. The check shows that the accounts did not tally.

Rosen Bachvarov, NRA spokesperson: The bigger question is that there is no description of these goods at all - inventory, accounting records, or records from computer systems. In general, there is no accounting trace of any goods. This raises the question - if this product exists only on paper, had it been sold long time ago, without VAT being paid.

In the coming months, companies will have the opportunity to make voluntary adjustments and pay the tax due. Tax audits will continue.