Claimed he came to "shut off the gas" at a bakery - and hid a business that brought in hundreds of thousands
As part of a large-scale enforcement operation in Rahat that included the seizure of dozens of vehicles, inspectors encountered creative attempts to evade payment. In one bakery, a man was discovered posing as a gas technician while actually running a business without receipts on the premises, while a grocery store owner who hid a phone business claimed in his defense: "These are funds I received while I was abroad."
The Tax Authority confiscated dozens of vehicles and uncovered tax offenses amounting to millions of shekels during a large-scale enforcement operation today (Sunday) in the city of Rahat.
As part of a joint national operation to combat crime in the Arab sector, led by the Southern District of the Israel Police, the Tax Authority operated in the southern city. During the activity, dozens of vehicles and trucks belonging to debtors were seized, with an estimated value of millions of shekels, and audits of bookkeeping were conducted in many businesses.
As part of the operation, the Enforcement and Collection Authority in Be'er Sheva confiscated 26 vehicles from tax debtors in the city of Rahat, as well as seven trucks with a cumulative debt value of approximately 12 million shekels.
In addition, on the day of the operation, the national bookkeeping audit unit entered 20 targets in the city of Rahat and the locality of Tarabin. In 13 of the targets, a failure to record income was found, totaling approximately one million shekels. Furthermore, violations of the Cash Law were found, totaling 380,000 shekels.
Hid the bills rolled up in notes
In one of the cases, inspectors from the bookkeeping audit unit arrived at a bakery, where a failure to record income from open checks was found, totaling approximately 345,000 shekels. The business owner claimed that "he issues invoices once a month, and there was no cooperation in the conversation with the accountant." Additionally, during the visit, a person arrived at the business claiming he came to shut off the gas, while in reality, it was found that he had a business inside the bakery and was not keeping books.
In another case, when the inspectors arrived at a grocery store, they discovered a failure to record income transferred via the Bit application, totaling 4,000 shekels. Furthermore, the inspectors revealed that in addition to the grocery store, the business owner had an illegal business selling phones.
The inspector insisted on receiving the ledgers belonging to the grocery store, and during a search in the business owner's office, cash bills were found rolled up in small memo notes belonging to phone sales, totaling 10,000 shekels. The business owner claimed:
"These are funds I received while I was abroad."
The activity of the various units of the Authority in the operation was led by the Tax Authority's dedicated project manager for combating crime in the Arab sector. The operation involved employees of the national bookkeeping audit unit, the crossings unit, the collection enforcement unit, the Be'er Sheva VAT unit, and the Be'er Sheva tax assessor.
