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Yukos Tax Practice Extended to Retail
The Moscow Tax Inspection has presented tax claims of 15 billion rubles to Eldorado. The tax officers, including the experts that had once driven Yukos to the tax collapse, unveiled a net of importers and intermediaries created by Russia’s biggest retailer to hold up prices and evade taxes. If the company fails to appeal the decision of tax authority, paying off the debt from for its own account won’t be easy for it.
The December 29, 2007 report made out by results of the tax check of Eldorado specifies the tax claims of around 15 billion rubles ($640 million) for 2004 and 2005. The amount includes the VAT arrears of over 8.6 billion rubles, fine of over 3.445 billion rubles, profit tax arrears of 73 million rubles and the penalty of over 3 billion rubles.
Formally, Eldorado was checked by the Moscow Tax Inspection 28, where it is recorded. But amid the officers were the experts of Federal Tax Service, to be more precise, the experts of the team of FTS Legal Department Chief Anton Ustinov. Exactly they had focused on the Yukos case, while Eldorado was one of the last tasks for them. The department ceased to exist February 1 after the FTS reorganization.
A source with FTS said the decision on tax claims to Eldorado was made and the amount was about 15 billion rubles. People in Eldorado confirmed yesterday that they had received the resolution of Inspection 28 and would appeal it.
Judging by the check files, Eldorado had created long chains of intermediaries for illegal import. The firms bought household devices either in the U.S. Delaware or in Panama, which are the offshore areas, or assembled them in the Kaliningrad economic zone. The basic importers were Metallogrif, Evrostroy and Business-Stroyoborudovаnie. Without any staff of employees, the firms used to import goods for billions of rubles scarcely paying the taxes. They were wound up or added to the wanted lists in 2006 and 2007.
The goods reached Eldorado via numerous intermediaries, some of them registered in Elista offshore area of Kalmykia. Eldorado itself controlled the business of importers and intermediaries, the tax officers concluded.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 18, 2008
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