One in 5 false invoices in the fuel sector. GdF: high risk of VAT fraud

Approximately 20 per cent of the total value of invoices for non-existent transactions identified by the Guardia di Finanza in 2023 concerned petroleum products. False invoices, therefore, continue to be a problem closely monitored by the Guardia Finanza, which yesterday spoke with General Luigi Vinciguerra (head of the Third Operations Department of the General Command) at a hearing in the Finance Committee of the Chamber of Deputies in the cognitive investigation on VAT and excise duty evasion in fuels.

As Vinciguerra recalled, despite the various regulatory interventions in recent years, the 'Guardia di finanza continues to detect VAT fraud mechanisms in the fuel sector'. In this context, a very high level of attention is paid to 'subjects who release fuels for consumption by taking them out of storage without paying VAT, enjoying an exemption. But rather than an exemption for the financiers, it is more often than not one of the classic red flags pointing to possible fraud. This is the case, for example, when petroleum products, or rather goods owned by the warehouse operator, are extracted without the advance payment of VAT even in the absence of the size requirements of the anti-fraud regulations. For Vinciguerra, it is evident in these cases 'the direct involvement of the warehouse operator, who assumes the liability profiles on the omitted advance payment of VAT'.

More complex, however, is to uncover the fraudulent mechanism put in place with the use of false documentation. In these cases, the non-payment of VAT is carried out by traders who can benefit from the exemptions provided by law. In this case, the warehouse operator releases the goods, once the documentation has been received, on the basis of the prerequisites for access to the derogation scheme. In these more complex cases, targeted investigations by the criminal police are needed to contest the co-responsibility of the manager. A case of fraud that allowed Vinciguerra to remind the Finance Commission