Bulgaria ruling party MP resigns over tax avoidance allegations
Dimitar Gamishev, an MP for GERB, Bulgaria’s senior partner in the ruling coalition, submitted his resignation from Parliament on March 28 amid a tax avoidance row.
Gamishev’s resignation comes several days after a media report claimed that he sold a company he owned, which owed the revenue agency about 200 000 leva (about 102 000 euro) in unpaid taxes.
In the past, selling companies to impoverished individuals (as Gamishev is claimed to have done) was a well-known way to dodge taxes, although Bulgaria’s revenue agency said that amendments passed in recent years have largely successful in stamping out the practice.
Gamishev denied any wrongdoing, saying that he resigned in order to avoid any doubts he was interfering with the prosecutor’s office investigation into the allegations, but also to prevent GERB from being associated with the ongoing controversy, Bulgarian National Radio reported.
(Bulgarian Parliament photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
