In Salerno, a seizure of over €14 million uncovered tax fraud involving construction incentives, highlighting how a transport company manipulated non-existent tax credits, an operation that could have repercussions for an entire sector and the tax system.
The Salerno Financial Police have seized assets worth over €14 million from a Salerno-based company operating in road haulage, accused of carrying out a complex tax fraud scheme involving construction incentives.
The order was issued by the preliminary investigations judge of the Court of Salerno, at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office, as part of an investigation into the improper compensation of tax debts through the use of non-existent tax credits.
Specifically, the decree ordered the seizure of sums of money and, alternatively, equivalent amounts of credit held in the tax drawer or other assets held by the company, up to a total of €14.168.471,21.
This is the amount corresponding to the fictitious tax credits that, according to investigators, were used to offset taxes owed in the 2022 and 2023 tax years.
The investigation, conducted by the Financial Police Unit, began with an analysis of the company's acquisition of tax credits related to construction bonuses, starting in December 2022 and continuing throughout 2023 and 2024.
The receivables, sold by approximately 90 economic entities, were purchased at a value equal to approximately 60% of the nominal value, generating millions of euros in proceeds, which were then accounted for in the 2022 and 2023 financial statements thanks to the discount applied at the purchase stage.
According to the investigators' reconstruction, those credits were completely nonexistent. This is confirmed by a long series of anomalies found among the assignors: recently established companies, often total tax evaders, lacking tax returns and with minimal corporate structures.
In many cases, the administrators had no expertise in the construction sector - a case in point was that of a woman who described herself as a "housewife" - and the legal representatives took on the role shortly before the credit transfer or acquisition operations.
Furthermore, all the transferring companies had a single shareholder, negligible share capital, and a number of employees completely incompatible with the massive construction projects declared. Even the technical and accounting documentation acquired was unable to justify the scale of the work that would have given rise to the tax credits.
According to investigators, the company targeted by the seizure was fully aware of the fictitious nature of the credits used. The improper offsetting of tax debts would not only have allowed it to avoid paying taxes to the Treasury, causing significant damage to the state coffers, but also to artificially alter the operating result, transforming the transaction into an apparent business profit.
The hypothesized responsibilities do not only concern the legal representative of the company, but also extend to the de facto administrator, the administrative manager and two consultants who allegedly played a key role in the purchase and sale operations of the non-existent building credits.
The investigation continues to outline the entire supply chain and determine any further liability.
Source EDITORIAL TEAM
Comments (1)
This article highlights a very complex and worrying situation regarding tax fraud. It is important that thorough investigations be conducted to prevent similar cases from recurring in the future, to the detriment of the state and its citizens.