Between 2015 and 2018, a rugby company in the province of Treviso is accused of having accounted for as many as 600 thousand euros in false invoices for non-existent gadgets and advertising services. The invoices had been issued by two companies based in the province of Milan.
After the assessment notices from the Revenue Agency and at the end of the investigations by the Treviso financiers, the sports club returned the taxes saved, paying 275 thousand euros to the state coffers including penalties and interest. The investigations started from the report of another department of the Guardia di Finanza, which had conducted investigations into the two Milanese companies accused of having issued false invoices in favor of various subjects in Italy, with a well-tested fraudulent mechanism. The two Lombard companies issued invoices with reasons relating to advertising services, completely or partially non-existent, for the use of gadgets that were never delivered or of modest value and for the provision of minimal sponsor and advertising services which served to give a legitimate appearance to operations, in the event of controls by the tax authorities. In this way they unduly deducted value added taxes. In the accounting records of the Treviso sports club, invoices were found with the generic reasons “advertising services” and “supply of gadgets” (backpacks, polo shirts, sweatshirts, personalized caps, towels, umbrellas, towels, jackets, bathrobes), without however there was no proof of the effectiveness of the operations.
