Detectives of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine exposed a chain of home appliance stores for tax evasion of over UAH 57 million.

The company's officials artificially understated VAT when selling household appliances and electronics to consumers.

In fiscal receipts, cashiers reduced the value of the goods subject to taxation and simultaneously added e-books, services for smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc. to the receipt. According to the Tax Code of Ukraine they are not subject to taxation. The total amount of the check remained unchanged.

Thus the retailer underestimated the positive value of the difference between the amount of tax liability and the amount of tax credit paid to the state budget. As a result the company underpaid more than UAH 57 million in taxes.

Currently, detectives of the Economic Security Bureau are conducting a pre-trial investigation under Part 3 of Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (tax evasion, duties (mandatory payments)) with procedural guidance from prosecutors of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.

As a reminder, in 2022, the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine on Exemption from Value Added Tax on the Supply of Ukrainian Audiobooks" was adopted. The exemption was introduced to encourage the popularization of Ukrainian-language content, but in practice, some companies used it to evade tax.