Over 160,000 complaints for illegal receipts

Tax authorities aided by users of the appodixi application, which checks authenticity of invoices

The 300,000 citizens who have downloaded the appodixi application, which verifies the veracity of company receipts, are demonstrating their active participation in supporting the tax control system.

Since the app was launched in September 2022, 163,610 complaints of falsified receipts have been filed. Of these 89,408 are anonymous, while 74,202 of them are not. The data show that taxpayers continue to support efforts to combat tax evasion even though the plan to award bonuses to individuals who scan receipts from their mobile device to verify their legitimacy has not yet been awarded.

The Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) reported that the relevant decision will be made in the coming days, and bonus payments will start as soon as the relevant provision is passed by Parliament. Whether the bonuses are also retroactive is something that needs to be determined by the decision.

According to the rules, the complainant receives a monetary reward following the decision of the AADE chief. Bonuses are eligible for those who filed complaints via the “QR code appodixi” scanning application, and if a tax audit is carried out and a fine is imposed for violation or falsification or interference with the operation of the electronic tax mechanisms.

Starting at €100 and going up to €3,000, the bonus is equivalent to 10 times the transaction value of the retail item that was provided and complained about, plus the applicable VAT.

If the complaint concerns several tax items issued by the same entity, the monetary reward is calculated on the issued tax item with the highest value.

In those cases where it is confirmed – from the complaints – that the mechanism has been tampered with, the fine cannot be lower than 10,000 euros per audited year, if simple books are kept, or 30,000 euros per audited year, in the case of double-entry bookkeeping.

Additionally, since last November, 11,788 complaints of tax evasion have been filed on the “citizens' complaints” website. For a few of those complaints, which are deemed significant, audits have been started.

More specifically, these amount to 10,097 anonymous, of which 841 are for corruption cases, 148 for customs violations and 9,148 for tax violations. Another 1,691 submissions were named, of which 226 were for corruption, 15 for customs violations and 1,450 for tax violations.