As part of the renewed memoranda of understanding signed at national level, the synergy between the Guardia di Finanza and the Revenue Agency significantly strengthens the protection of tax interests in the Apuan province, with the execution of joint activities, each with its own peculiarities, made up of the penetrating economic and financial police powers assigned to the Corps and the legal technicality of the Financial Office. In this context, the Guardia di Finanza and the Revenue Agency of Massa Carrara carried out a complex tax investigation which made it possible to reveal the presence in the territory of the Apuan province of a company with registered office in Switzerland but operating in Italy, where achieved undeclared revenues of millions of euros.
Mass
The operation was triggered when the Provincial Directorate of the Revenue Agency of Massa, during the check on the VAT refund requests submitted by the company for hundreds of thousands of euros, detected alerts of risk of tax evasion and affected the Group of the Guardia di Finanza of Massa Carrara, for the start of an inspection activity.
Once the first documentary acquisitions were carried out jointly at the residence of the Italian entrepreneur and at the operational headquarters of the company, located within another Italian company attributable to the same entrepreneur, the doubts on the regularity raised by the officials of the Financial Office. Elements potentially harbingers of a mix between the Italian and Swiss companies therefore emerged, which required detailed in-depth analysis regarding all commercial relationships with Italian suppliers and customers. These insights were carried out during the tax audit initiated by the financiers, during which all the commercial operations conducted by the company in Italy were examined. The results of the tax investigations made it possible to reveal incontrovertible elements regarding the presence on Italian territory of the actual operational activity of the Swiss company, hidden within the Italian company.
Having noted the significant tax evasion which also has aspects of criminal relevance, the financiers sent the report to the Provincial Directorate of the Revenue Agency and reported the entrepreneur to the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Massa court for the crime of failure to declare taxes on income.
Precautionary needs
The subsequent phases of the assessment conducted by the Financial Office induced the taxpayer to comply, with a payment, in four instalments, of a total sum of taxes due and penalties equal to over 900,000 euros and, to the regularization of the company in Italy . The payment of the taxes due eliminated the precautionary requirements of the preventive seizure, originally requested from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which nevertheless initiated criminal proceedings against the entrepreneur.
The investigative activity conducted jointly by the Fiamme Gialle and the officials of the Financial Office, in concert with the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Massa, each with their own skills and specificities, represents a clear example of efficiency in collaboration between the public administrations of the province apuana, allowing us to optimize and maximize the efforts dedicated to the protection of collective interests.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Massa specifies and reiterates that the investigative hypotheses outlined above have been formulated in compliance with the principle of the presumption of innocence of the person subjected to investigations and that the responsibility of the suspect will be definitively ascertained only if an irrevocable sentence of conviction occurs .
