Corona pandemic
Tax evasion in the mask business: process started
The main defendant (l, in custody), as well as other defendants, lawyers and those involved in the process, are in the courtroom before the trial begins. Photo: Christian Charisius / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Four men are said to have delivered masks to the Federal Ministry of Health – and evaded taxes of 4.5 million euros. Now they have to answer in court.
Because of tax evasion amounting to millions in mask deliveries to the Federal Ministry of Health, four men have had to answer before the Hamburg district court since Friday.
Another defendant is charged with aiding and abetting an attempted tax evasion as a tax advisor.
According to the indictment, the 22-year-old owner of a car dealership, his 30-year-old brother and his business partner of the same age are said to have delivered more than 23 million corona protective masks to the ministry. The company was awarded the contract in April of last year. The Federal Ministry of Health paid 109 million euros, 17 million of which were sales tax.
The accused would have had to pay input tax amounts of the sales tax to the Hamburg-Harburg tax office one month after receiving them, the public prosecutor said. But they would have failed to do so and evaded a total of 4.5 million euros. When the defendants learned of criminal tax proceedings against them in April of this year, they are said to have given fake invoices in subsequent declarations that offset the tax liability arithmetically. In fact, the defendants would have evaded almost one million euros again. According to the prosecutor, a 45-year-old lawyer who is also accused of gang tax evasion also participated in the criminal transactions.