Corina BOLOȘ ¹, Lorant HERCZEG ²

¹ Doctoral School of Economic Sciences, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania

 boloscorina@gmail.com

lorantherczeg1984@gmail.com

Abstract:  Due to the constant increase in taxpayers’ tax obligations, increasingly varied methods have emerged to evade the tax provisions that establish these categories of obligations. Thus, the method of evading the payment of taxes and fees to the state budget essentially represents the evasion phenomenon.

In 2024, tax evasion represents approximately 10% of the gross domestic product, respectively 32-33 billion euros. The causes of the tax evasion phenomenon consist in the existence of an incomplete and interpretable legislative framework with gaps and many ambiguities to the lack of education of taxpayers.

The activity by which the evading commercial company evades the payment of tax obligations related to the income obtained consists of registering unreal operations, through “buffer” or “phantom (missing traders)” type companies, operations whose value is artificially undersized or oversized, depending on the position/price practiced in the market and the extent and necessity of obtaining illicit advantages by the real final beneficiary company.

A generally accepted truth is that, although this type of phenomena can be identified by legal institutions and by applying criminal, contravention or disciplinary penalties the offender can be eliminated, the phenomenon itself cannot be eradicated, on the contrary, this type of phenomena is being improved with legislative amendments.

This article highlights and analyzes a set of cases regarding tax evasion committed by various companies through different modes of operation that outline similar fraudulent behaviors, which mainly aimed at evading the payment of tax obligations owed to the general consolidated budget of the state.

Keywords: fraud, corruption, public procurement, contracts, public institutions, anti-corruption measures

JEL classification: D73

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