Finnish restaurants neglected to pay taxes by almost 20 million euros in 2017–2021
FINNISH TAX ADMINISTRATION on Tuesday revealed that it has discovered unpaid taxes worth 19.5 million euros during a five-year monitoring campaign in the restaurant industry, of which eight million euros are unpaid income taxes.
The monitoring revealed a total of 40 million euros of hidden income in the years 2017–2021.
“In recent years, no so-called million-euro cases have been detected, because the signs of the cases have been detected at an early stage. However, there have been cases where there are hundreds of thousands of euros in unpaid taxes. was revealed Tarja ValsiAudit Director of the Tax Administration.
From the beginning of next year, tax administration officials are preparing to conduct tax audits and other inspections in hundreds of restaurants across the country.
“Although most restaurant owners pay their taxes diligently, there is unfortunately a lot of shadow economy activity in the restaurant industry. From the tax administration, we get a lot of information about payment transactions related to business activities, along with other information, so the owners get caught in tax evasion or income concealment, he said.
According to the tax administration, a restaurant that evades taxes is typically a small or medium-sized pub or a kebab or pizza restaurant.
“We have found that the majority of tax evading companies operate deliberately and plan complex arrangements to avoid paying taxes. Only a few companies in the restaurant industry do not really pay taxes due to a lack of expertise, Valsi said.
Another characteristic of such establishments is that they pay their workers so poorly, sometimes without informing that the workers are also entitled to unemployment benefits.
“The findings suggest that in many restaurants, the real income of the employees consists of a few hundred euros of official salary, wages paid under the counter and unemployment benefits. This is not only tax evasion, but also abuse of social security benefits, Valsi said.
“Effective cooperation and information exchange is needed to eradicate the phenomenon.”
Such entrepreneurs often continue to evade taxes despite a previous tax audit.
The Tax Administration recommended consumers to prefer card payment in order to find out tax evasion by ensuring that a record is made of each transaction. Consumers should also request a receipt detailing the total prices.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT