Dutch Yacht Investigations Prove Lucrative

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During an international investigation, the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration tracked down value-added tax (VAT) fraud involving luxury yachts amounting to almost EUR90m.

The Dutch Ministry of Finance announced that 150 luxury ships were inspected in various ports in the Mediterranean and that the Dutch tax authorities have imposed additional tax assessments to the amount of almost EUR20m, confirming that this figure is expected to increase over the course of the next few months.


Commenting on the latest inspection, Dutch State Secretary of Finance Weekers stated that: “The Tax and Customs Administration continues to check constructions with which people try to dodge taxes. It cannot be tolerated that luxury yachts are used for private purposes without VAT being paid.”
Under the direction of the Netherlands and France, 43 luxury ships were investigated in further detail. Up to now, VAT fraud was detected for sixteen ships. During their inspection, investigators checked whether the recreational crafts were indeed used for business so that less VAT was due, or whether these yachts were mainly used for private purposes.


During an earlier investigation, completed in 2008, fines and additional tax assessments of around EUR31m were imposed. The current investigation was launched in 2009 by ten countries, involving yachts with a value of more than EUR25m.


While the Netherlands imposed additional tax assessments to the amount of EUR20m, other countries imposed EUR70m.

[megamath]

How come this is not a suprise to me