PS Describes Slovakia as Paradise for VAT Fraudsters

Bratislava, 26 January (TASR) - Slovakia is a paradise for tax fraudsters, in particular those targeting VAT, and the country's budget is short of hundreds of millions of euros lost in tax evasion, representatives of the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party told a press conference on Monday, adding that Slovakia provides fertile ground for companies that are used to transfer dirty money before sending it to accounts in third countries. Referring to last year's information from the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), party MP and member of the House finance committee Stefan Kiss said that "due to their [government's] clumsiness, due to worse tax collection, we're losing €400 million annually on VAT alone, which is the largest in volume in Slovakia. We're seeing similar losses in other taxes. When you add it all up, this totals nearly €1.8 billion, which is the amount missing from the finance minister's budget". PS MP and vice-chair of the parliamentary European affairs committee Beata Jurik stated that Slovakia ranks among the countries with high levels of fraud involving EU subsidies. "Currently, the EPPO has more than 120 pending cases in this area, with damage to the Recovery and Resilience Plan alone estimated at nearly €300 million," she stressed. She further detailed that the EPPO has identified more than 4,700 suspect companies with links to Slovakia during 172 ongoing VAT fraud investigations. "In other words, this accounts for more than one third of all investigated cases. Slovakia is literally a paradise for VAT fraudsters. In just eight currently investigated cases linked to Slovakia, the damage exceeds half a billion euros," explained Jurik. Kiss stated that while the government has presented a plan to improve the situation, no concrete steps or better collection rates can be seen. "Therefore, we as MPs are calling on the government, by means of a resolution, to present a strategy that would actually improve tax collection," stressed Kiss. "We expect such a resolution and debate to actually take place in Parliament. If not, it would clearly prove that this governing coalition doesn't care about money for all the people of this country, but only about its own shady deals," added PS caucus vice-chair Zuzana Stevulova. jrg/df