Tax Authority Seeks Prison Sentence for Israeli Contractor
A Be'er Sheva-based company owner is accused of deducting fictitious invoices, resulting in a VAT evasion of approximately 12 million shekels. The Customs and VAT legal department has notified the court of its intent to seek an actual prison sentence.
The Israel Tax Authority has filed a severe indictment in the Be'er Sheva Magistrate's Court against Yigal Biliti and his construction company, "Quick Hat Ltd." The defendants are charged with illegal input tax deduction offenses totaling approximately 12 million shekels. The indictment was filed by Adv. Idan Yosef from the Be'er Sheva legal department following an investigation by the local Customs and VAT investigations unit.
The indictment reveals that Yigal Biliti serves as a director and shareholder of "Quick Hat Ltd," which operates in the construction and renovation sector. Between 2019 and 2022, the defendant and his company allegedly received hundreds of fictitious tax invoices from five different suppliers, despite never performing or committing to the transactions for which the invoices were issued.
The State has notified the court of its intention to request an actual prison sentence. According to the indictment, the defendants submitted 32 periodic reports between 2019 and 2022, in which they deducted input tax amounting to 11,992,683 shekels.
The deductions were based on 148 documents identified as fictitious tax invoices issued in the names of five different dealers for transactions that never took place. The State emphasizes that the offenses were committed under aggravating circumstances, citing the systematic nature, frequency, and extensive financial scope of the acts, which were designed to artificially inflate company expenses and evade tax payments.
The Tax Authority noted that the defendant's actions were a deliberate attempt to falsely reduce the amount of tax payable, in direct violation of the law.
