More than necessary, and on the merits of the matter, it was argued that all the sums of the appellant's taxes in respect of the invoices that are the subject of the 16th indictment were transferred in full to defendant 1, whether in cash or by bank transfer. Since the sums of the tax appellant were given to defendant 1 for him to transfer to the tax authorities, this is not a matter of evasion of the payment of VAT, as the prosecution claims. It was also argued that there was no basis for the prosecution's approach, according to which the offenses were committed under aggravated circumstances. The aggravating circumstances required by the tax laws relate to three matters, namely: "the quantity, scope and character of the offender." In summary, defendant 4 did not commit any violation of the VAT Law, and certainly not under aggravated circumstances.
Hearing and Decision on Charge No. 16
- In the framework of the 16th indictment, this is a deduction of input tax, which was carried out by OPCI, which is owned by defendant 4, according to documents that appear to be transaction invoices, which were issued in the framework of charges 2-7.
As determined in the hearing regarding these charges, these are indeed fictitious tax invoices that were issued for the purpose of providing accounting coverage for the receipt of the goods referred to therein. The aforementioned invoices do not reflect a real transaction, whether because no real transaction was made or because it is a person who is not a party to the transaction.
This is the case with respect to Schloss invoice No. 4 (found in the invoice book – P/206) dated April 30, 1999, for the sum of NIS 446,277.78. This invoice is intended to provide accounting coverage for the receipt of the goods, which are the subject of the second charge; Svila Trading Invoice No. 3 of 14.10.1999, in the sum of NIS 2,953,548 (P/470), is intended to provide accounting coverage for the receipt of the goods, which is the subject of the seventh indictment; Invoice No. 164 of Lirco Fabrice (Israel Ltd.) dated 07.12.1999, in the amount of NIS 143,224 (P/483). This invoice does not relate to one charge or another, but according to the prosecution, it is an accounting cover-up : "to distribute a variety of fraudulent acts between fraudulent partners, out of the sale of the goods received fraudulently."