The Provincial Court of Madrid has ordered a repeat trial of a company dedicated to the purchase and sale of telephone minutes based in Arona (Tenerife), which is accused of an alleged crime against the Public Treasury that would add around 1.4 million.
This activity corresponds to the acquisition of cards with which calls can be made, generally abroad, for a determined period of time.
At the time, a trial was held in a Madrid Criminal Court that concluded with the acquittal of those responsible for the company, one of whom has already died, a sentence that was annulled in the same judicial area at the request of the State Attorney.
From here on, another judicial ruling was issued again that was in the same sense but that has now also rendered the Court void, which requires the repetition of the entire procedure and that a new judge be the one to rule on this dispute.
Specifically, between 2005 and 2009, both businessmen created a company dedicated to the telecommunications sector with headquarters in the town of Pozuelo de Alarcón, but supposedly, in order to benefit from the tax benefits of the islands, they established a “fictitious” address ” in the Tenerife town of Arona.
The State Attorney maintains that since the company was “apparently” established in the Canary Islands, neither the acquisitions nor the sales or provision of services were subject to the payment of the Value Added Tax (VAT), but to the General Indirect Tax of the Canary Islands (IGIC), minor amount.
Despite this apparent location, the company “deployed all its activity” from its Madrid headquarters and in fact was mainly focused on call shops located on the Peninsula.
The State Attorney concludes that “an appearance of a false subjection to the IGIC” was created, which would have given rise to damage to the public treasury that is quantified at almost 300,000 euros in 2007, 488,500 in 2008 and 614,500 in 2009, which would add close to 1.4 million, despite which the free acquittal of the accused was declared.
The State Attorney filed an appeal considering that the sentences incurred in “arbitrariness, irrationality and violation of the law” to the point that the first sentence was annulled by the same Criminal Court that issued it, among other alleged anomalies.
Basically it is maintained that despite the regularization of the situation with one of the telephone operators with which they operated, the same did not happen with two others.
The Prosecutor’s Office also supported repeating the judicial procedure from the beginning, although at the time, based on expert reports, it reduced the amount that was not taxed to 120,000 euros, taking into account both the VAT that it had to bear and the one that it was obliged to pay. reverberate
For this reason, the Public Ministry requested that either the last sentence be annulled, or another conviction be issued, or the procedure be forced to repeat, to which the Madrid Provincial Court responds by annulling the ruling and forcing the investigation to be restarted.
For their part, the representation of the accused unsuccessfully opposed any of these possibilities and confirmed that they were dealing with a civil matter, not a criminal one.
Given the controversy created, the Court indicates that if the same judicial body issued a third sentence, the principle of impartiality would be questioned and therefore endorses the annulment of the two judicial decisions, of the trial held in its day and opts for another judge different “with freedom of criteria” the one that dictates a new resolution.
