Failure to submit profit tax returns

On Friday, five executives from various companies were sentenced to a suspended prison term ranging from 2 to 4 months, with a probation period of 3 years, due to their failure to file profit tax returns for multiple years.

The Court has ruled that individuals must submit all their tax declarations within a specified period, including those for periods for which they had already received a tax assessment. During the probationary period, they must fulfill all declarations and associated payments on time. If they meet these conditions, they will not have to serve their sentence.

As per the press release from the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The press release further explains that during the proceedings, it became evident that several companies had significant tax debts ranging from NAf. 100,000 to over 1.5 million. The Public Prosecutor’s Office had demanded that these debts be fully repaid during the probationary period. On top of that, on March 12th , 2024, a press release was posted on the personal Facebook page of Minister Silvania of Finance, referring to a recent conviction of an entrepreneur to a 2-month suspended prison sentence for failing to submit profit tax returns.

According to that press release, the conditionality of the sentence in that case means that the 2-month prison term will have to be served if the entrepreneur does not submit the overdue tax returns within the court-set deadline of 3 months and pay the outstanding profit tax. Additionally, the entrepreneur would have received a probationary period of 3 years, during which not only profit tax returns but also turnover tax and payroll tax returns must be submitted on time, and the due taxes must be paid.

The press release on March 12th , 2024 also announced that ‘multiple entrepreneurs with outstanding profit tax return filings’ will be summoned to appear in court in the near future.