Protection against fictitious contracting parties

The phenomenon of using honest taxpayers by tax offenders in order to authenticate their transactions is unfortunately very common.
It does not only concern sensitive goods, such as scrap metal, steel, fuel or electronics.

At the same time as the tax authorities are targeting companies in the sensitive goods industry, criminals are shifting their focus to trading other goods, often commonly available, such as cement, oil, paper and foodstuffs.

What are the effects of trading with fictitious business partners?

When someone unwittingly gets involved in a transaction with a fictitious contractor, as a result he is very often deprived of the right to deduct VAT or the right
to claim the given expense as a tax cost. As shown by the judicature of administrative courts, taxpayers who do not exercise due diligence in dealing with contractors and are unable to prove that they have verified their reliability cannot plead ignorance. Increasingly, taxpayers are required to implement rules
and mechanisms to enable such verification and authorization.

How to protect yourself?

In order to avoid such liability or reduce the risk of its occurrence, we have prepared for our clients tips on how the procedures should look like, what to pay attention to, what documents to collect. The preparation and implementation of appropriate mechanisms and controls will enable taxpayers to defend themselves against possible allegations of failure to exercise due diligence.