Need some help.... tax audit...

[casana2007]

Hi there,

I have been a simple member of offshorcorptalk for some years. I have decided to upgrade today because I need help.
2 days ago, I had the surprise at 6 o clock on the morning to have 3 taxes inspectors ringing at my door .
I have an ecommerce in europe, the headquarter is in london, but my stocks are in france (not at my home but at my logistic platform). so they want to say i needed to declare everything in france. that's the point. (the ecommerce is 100%legal for what i sell, no problem for this). we are talking about the last 5 years !
next monday i will meet a tax lawyer to help me to break all the procedure, but not sure if it will work. Anyway, i will win some time.
So now I m just wondering if I should create a new identity ? to have new bank accounts not on my own name. Because they will be able at the end to take funds on my personal account maybe. I m really lost and the only advantage i have is that i have some time to organize myself.
Should I sell my house ? because the value of my house is 700000 €. if i sell it later and that i owe 1 million to the taxes, maybe they could block the sale.
hope you can give me some tips because i don't even manage to think right since tuesday.......

thanks for your help

 

[Martin Everson]

Does not sounds good. If you got a knock on the door rather than a audit letter its pretty serious.

Selling your house right now does not make sense. Until you know the scope of the back taxes and penalty owed or whether in fact their case is solid I would take no action with selling or constructing anything to move money. What you should do immediately is ensure you have plenty of non-bank cash on hand to pay a tax lawyer etc. Do not attempt to move anything as this could make any offence committed much worse.

Some questions:

1. Do you have any idea how much you may will owe if they were indeed entitled to tax you?

2. Where are the bank accounts held?

3. Would you have cash to be able to settle any tax bill?

Hopefully you did not say anything to the tax inspectors other than confirm your name. DO NOT admit to knowledge of anything they are talking about until you have spoken to your lawyer.

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Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.

 

[CaptK]

RULE 1

SHUT THE f**k UP.

If they ask you anything tell them to put it to your lawyer.

I agree with the Martin. The fact that you want to sell your house means you know what you have been doing and probably got careless. It happens to the best of us.

First find out what it is they have. The fact that they came round and didn't send a letter means it very serious. Maybe a joint operation with the UK authorities.

Did they send letters and you ignored them?

You need to look into Plan B now but you can't do anything until you know what your facing. What you said about setting up another company in a nominee looks like your only option.

 

[casana2007]

hello, thanks for your answers. They did not send any letter, in the uk or in france. I have not talked when they were in my home. It is certainly about vat, my logistic platform told me they seemed to look after this. I m thinking about the future, so that my family won't have any problem (i m married and have 3 children). Yes i m thinking about closing this one of course and then do another set up, not in my name, but just thinking. I really don't know what to do and I really do not know what s going on. I m just selling crafts items on the web. I will talk to a tax lawyer next week.....i think he will help me. Thanks for your support

 

[CaptK]

Find out what they want and then let us know what they are saying you owe and between all of us, we can give an opinion and then also talk that over with the accountant and lawyer.

 

[casana2007]

Martin Everson said:
Does not sounds good. If you got a knock on the door rather than a audit letter its pretty serious.

Selling your house right now does not make sense. Until you know the scope of the back taxes and penalty owed or whether in fact their case is solid I would take no action with selling or constructing anything to move money. What you should do immediately is ensure you have plenty of non-bank cash on hand to pay a tax lawyer etc. Do not attempt to move anything as this could make any offence committed much worse.

Some questions:

1. Do you have any idea how much you may will owe if they were indeed entitled to tax you?
Click to expand...

really no idea

Martin Everson said:
2. Where are the bank accounts held?
Click to expand...

the bank accounts of my company are leopay and sogexia. my personal bank accounts are all in France. I also have one in Morocco.

Martin Everson said:
3. Would you have cash to be able to settle any tax bill?
Click to expand...

I have just invested what I had in economy in a flat in another country (not european country) but I still have cash, but the main thing is that i don't know at all what the amounts they are talking about.

Martin Everson said:
Hopefully you did not say anything to the tax inspectors other than confirm your name. DO NOT admit to knowledge of anything they are talking about until you have spoken to your lawyer.
Click to expand...

 

[Sols]

As mentioned, first step should be to get a grasp of the scope of this investigation (duration, amounts).

Some tax authorities can be negotiated with. Discuss this with your tax lawyer (don't talk to anyone else at all about this!). But in many cases, if you can't pay your tax bill all at once but show a willingness to pay and set up an aggressive payment plan (get ready for beans and rice), you might be able to reduce the penalties and avoid prison.

Don't do anything stupid that risks making the situation worse.

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This is the probably the answer to your question.

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

You might also want to think about what you write here. If you admit to any wrongdoing here (especially things they might not even be aware of yet) and they can link you to this thread, it's probably not going to help your case.

 

[Martin Everson]

casana2007 said:
I have just invested what I had in economy in a flat in another country (not european country) but I still have cash, but the main thing is that i don't know at all what the amounts they are talking about.
Click to expand...

For a knock on the door its not 300 euros they think you owe 😕. But if its VAT fraud done over 5 years expect minimum a jail sentence and confiscation of your assets unless their is mitigating circumstances. Start gathering all your business paperwork, accounting data and get ready to talk to your lawyer. All your lawyer will ask you to do is be transparent and will try and get you the lowest penalty possible and that would be suspended jail sentence and paying what is owed plus penalties. Your lawyer will explain as in France they don't joke around with VAT.

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Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.

 

[Spinat]

Pretty bad situation you are in there. As said here a few times get a good local tax lawyer, you won't be able to argue with them about anything. If they think they are right they are and you will lose what ever you have on the line.

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