Using the Data of Another Entity in Commercial Transactions and the Nature of a Blank Invoice Issuer’s Tax Liability

Abstract

Acts of fraud associated with circulating dummy invoices take different forms, ranging from less complex ones, which involve the entrepreneur buying one or several dummy invoices in order to reduce tax burdens, to creating organised criminal structures that operate in order to extort VAT. The liability of the entity that used the data of another taxpayer in commercial transactions by issuing a VAT invoice can be considered in three dimensions: penal, penal fiscal and fiscal. Issuing an invoice, and, as part of it, an indication of VAT, results in the obligation to pay the VAT, regardless of the purpose for which it was issued. It is not only legal, physical or non-corporate entities that are enumerated in the regulation that are obliged to pay the tax, but so is every person, even if they are not registered as an active VAT payer.