Bulgaria’s revenue agency: Every second trader in Sunny Beach lies about turnover
Pubs, nightclubs, cafes and car parks in Bulgaria’s Black Sea coastal resort Sunny Beach massively are not reporting their turnovers, the National Revenue Agency said on June 22.
The agency said that this emerged from checks at the resort over the past weekend.
It said that during the time that the agency conducted “open observation” on June 18, turnover at parking places was 1200 per cent higher than a week earlier – when just 13 motorists had been given till slips.
The situation was similar at Sunny Beach’s nightlife spots, the National Revenue Agency said. A disco, described by the agency as part of a popular chain, registered a turnover of 32 000 leva (about 16 000 euro) on the night that agency inspectors monitored the issuance of cash register receipts. Yet a week earlier, the same club had recorded a turnover just a third of that.
Another nightclub had five times higher revenues than those registered a week earlier, and nine times higher than that recorded a year earlier, on Saturday June 13 2015.
Bulgaria’s revenue agency said at the time of observations in almost all restaurants in Sunny Beach, tax inspectors registered significant increases in turnover.
Several owners of places would now be subjected to tax check-ups as individuals, the National Revenue Agency said.
Observation of establishments would continue throughout Bulgaria’s summer holiday season. Revenue Agency inspectors would continue to be present along the coast until the end of the season, the agency said.
Over three days, from June 17 to 19, “intensive inspections” were carried out by agency officials of close to 300 places. Revenue Agency inspectors would continue to be present along the coast until the end of the season.
The agency said that it was using various methods to check tax compliance, including “secret shoppers”. Hundreds of places were under direct observation in person, while the turnovers of others were being monitored in real time through online links to cash registers.
The National Revenue Agency issued a reminder that people could report traders who concealed turnover or did not issue till-printed receipts, to the agency at 0700 18 700.
Bulgaria’s authorities embarked on high-profile tax and police check-ups at the resort after a June 8 shootout at a beach bar in Sunny Beach that left one man dead, one critically injured and another slightly injured. The critically injured man is Dimitar “Mityo the Eyes” Zhelyazkov, who came out of jail in 2012 after serving five years following his guilty plea in a trial for heading an organised crime gang.
Bulgaria’s Prosecutor-General has said that the shootout – earlier described by senior government and police figures as having started because of a dispute over parking space – as a turf war over proceeds from organised crime.
On June 22, the internal affairs committee of Bulgaria’s National Assembly was due to hear senior police and Interior Ministry officials on the subject of the investigation into the June 8 Sunny Beach shootout.
Police earlier pledged several stepped-up security measures at Sunny Beach and at all of Bulgaria’s summer holiday resorts along its coastline.
(Photo: http://www.vacacionesbulgaria.com)
