Fraud in selling houses leads to the constitution of seven defendants

A Tax and Customs Authority (AT) today announced that seven defendants were set up in Aveiro and Ílhavo in a process of tax fraud in construction related to the concealment of real values in the sale of housing.

In a statement, the TA clarified that in conjunction with the GNR and the PSP complied, on Tuesday, with 18 search and seizure warrants, 13 households, in the municipalities of Aveiro and Ílhavo, on suspicion of the crime of qualified tax fraud and money laundering.

According to the same note, the investigation, conducted by the Department of Research and Criminal Action (DIAP) of Aveiro, covers a group of companies in the construction sector.

According to AT, this is a fraudulent scheme for concealing part of the real value of the sale of houses, allegedly with the connivance of buyers, in order to avoid payment of IRC and VAT, to an amount that may exceed EUR 1,2 million.

‘In parallel, the existence of a scheme of simulated transactions between companies of the group, materialised through alleged ‘staff transfers’, not subject to VAT, or intended to conceal services of intra-group services effectively subject to VAT, may also involve pure and simple simulation of transactions’, says the same note.

According to AT, these practices will have occurred between 2021 and 2025, involving an overall amount of EUR 2.2 million, with an impact on tax revenue, including VAT and CRF.

In the course of this operation, which was dubbed ‘Occident Value’, seven defendants were set up, who were subject to the coercion of a term of identity and residence.

Various evidentiary documentation of these simulations, mobile phones and other electronic equipment considered relevant for proving the offences concerned was also seized.

This action involved 114 operatives, corresponding to 67 AT inspectors, 12 GNR military and 35 PSP agents.