The oldest McDonald's in the former Soviet Union, Pushkin Square, Moscow
Photo: Dmitry Kostyukov
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The Taxman Cometh for Mickey D
ZAO Moscow-McDonald's is disputing a 160-million ruble tax bill in Moscow Arbitration Court. The charges stem from tax service claims that the fast food provider obtained meat and packaging materials from unreliable companies and applied VAT benefits to uncertified meat and dairy products. McDonald's filed its suit on October 15 appealing an onsite audit for 2003-2005 conducted by tax inspectorate No. 48, resulting in monetary claims made on August 29.
The tax service discovered that Moscow-McDonald's bought meat from OOO Ivers Import in 2003 and 2004. That company's was registered with documents that have been misplaced. The tax service found that the sum paid the company was improperly deducted from the base sum for the profits tax. The same situation arose with OOO East Alliance, which provided packaging. In addition, the tax service found that the reduced VAT of 10 percent (vs. 18 percent) was paid on milkshakes, ice cream and Chicken McNuggets were sold without health certification.
McDonald's is asking that the claims against it be dismissed, arguing that it knew nothing about its suppliers' problems with registration. It pointed out in reference to the lack of certification for its products that all products of the McDonald's Corp. meet unified European standards. The Federal Tax Service press service commented for Kommersant that the use of unregistered suppliers presents a danger to society.
The tax service has been busy with food suppliers. It has charged OAO Nidan Soki with falsely claiming that its juice is baby food in order to receive a VAT benefit and it has accused SUN InBev brewery of buying bottles from unreliable sources at inflated prices. Analysts note that the tax service has developed sophisticated methods for tracking suspicious suppliers. They say that there may be many more such cases connected with consumer goods.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 04, 2007
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