Operation "Kurir": Surplus and shortage of goods among taxpayers

Officers of the Indirect Taxation Authority have completed inspections of taxpayers who were the subject of the operation codenamed "Kurir". In inspections of certain taxpayers, shortages of goods in stock were found in the amount of 948,496.11 BAM, while in others, surpluses of goods in stock were found in the amount of 195,353.95 BAM.

Upon the conclusion of the operation codenamed "Kurir", conducted by ITA officers in cooperation with SIPA officers, inspectors from the ITA Tax Sector completed business inspections of seven legal entities owned by Chinese nationals.

The inspections included an inventory of all goods in stock. The inspections revealed a huge shortage of goods on hand in the total amount of 878,917.11 BAM. VAT at a rate of 17 percent will be calculated on the identified shortages. Additionally, surpluses of goods on hand were found at certain taxpayers in the amount of 195,353.95 BAM, and these goods were subject to seizure by ITA officers.

In the coming period, the ITA will prepare a Report on the grounds for suspicion that criminal acts of tax evasion and money laundering have been committed against seven legal entities owned by Chinese nationals, which will be forwarded to the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We remind you that, as part of the continuation of the operation codenamed "Kurir", ITA and SIPA officers conducted searches at 18 locations across Bosnia and Herzegovina on April 15, 2016, and established that approximately 3 million euros were illegally taken out of BiH. There is reasonable suspicion that legal entities owned by Chinese nationals have, over the past several years, illegally imported goods into BiH, sold them "on the black market" without any documentation, and then converted the money into euros and, through intermediaries who are natural persons – citizens of BiH, transferred it to the neighboring Republic of Croatia, from where the money was transferred to China via a commercial bank.

The initial operation codenamed "Kurir" was carried out at the end of 2015, where a detailed investigation established that Chinese nationals operating in BiH, along with their associated companies and legal entities, had, over a longer period, been smuggling and taking large amounts of cash out of BiH (in a total amount of at least 15 million euros), which was not transferred through payment transactions but was physically smuggled into the territory of the Republic of Croatia and further abroad.

All collected information and evidence are contained in reports that will be processed by the Court and the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.