The Court of Appeal - Burgas has finally confirmed a sentence of four years in prison for tax evasion in particularly large amounts. The convicted M.I. will serve the sentence effectively under an initial "general" regime, the judicial institution announced today.
Under the conditions of a continuing crime, in the period from August 2016 to January 2017, the defendant in his capacity as manager and de facto head of "Zoser Si" EOOD evaded the establishment and payment of tax liabilities in the amount of 217,901.91 leva.
To achieve the criminal goal, M.I. used a scheme with mediocrity through the accountant D.S. The two confirmed untruths in submitted VAT returns and presented 179 invoices with false content to the National Revenue Agency. In this way, they deducted an undue tax credit in the full amount of the evaded taxes.
The court proceedings before the District Court of First Instance - Burgas were conducted under the abbreviated procedure. The judges determined a total penalty in two criminal proceedings - one in Varna and the current one in Burgas, taking as a basis the most severe of them (three years), which they increased by one year.
In addition to the prison sentence, M.I. was sentenced to pay the full amount of 217,901.91 leva to the state, represented by the Minister of Finance. This amount is also charged with statutory interest from the date of the act until final payment.
The Court of Appeal accepted as aggravating circumstances the high degree of public danger of the act and the fact that the amount of unpaid taxes is dozens of times above the threshold of 12,000 leva for qualification as "taxes in particularly large amounts". An additional aggravating factor is that when the crime was committed, the defendant had already been convicted of the same type of crime against the tax system.
The court also noted the good organization of the criminal scheme, including the concealment of the defendant's participation by transferring the ownership of the company to another person and the destruction of incriminating accounting documentation.
The decision of the Burgas Court of Appeal is subject to appeal and protest before the Supreme Court of Cassation of the Republic of Bulgaria.