Tax Agency Slaps VAT Fine on Bulgaria's Ethnic Turkish Leader

Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish party leader Ahmed Dogan (right) has been fined for delayed tax returns filing. Photo by BGNES

Ahmed Dogan, leader of Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms), has been fined BGN 500 for a VAT violation.

In 2008, Dogan received a total of BGN 366 590 in fees as a consultant but registered this income two months past the deadline set by the Value Added Tax Act.

As a result, the National Revenue Agency (NAP) started the respective procedure and punished Dogan's violation, announced its head Krasimir Stefanov.

"We established the delay in Dogan's tax return, and NAP fined him," Stefanov explained without specifying the amount of the fine. According to the Bulgarian VAT Act, the act for delays is between BGN 500 and BGN 5000. The Bulgarian "Trud" Daily cites own sources as saying that Dogan's fine was the minimum.

This is the second time the ethnic Turkish leader is fined within less that two weeks as the Parliament, where he is an MP, just fined him BGN 27 314 for not showing up at all to parliamentary meetings and hearings.

Bulgaria's tax agency head further announced that his institution has inspected 16 persons and firms, which are believed to be connected with Dogan, and has submitted all paperwork and findings to the Office of the Chief Prosecutor.

The inspection focused on businesses and real estate properties; it was completed on August 6, 2010, and was referred to the Chief Prosecutor on September 3, 2010.

Dogan himself and his ethnic Turkish party DPS (which was in the governing coalitions in 2001-2009) have been rumored to have created corruption networks of clients and nepotism connections in the sectors and regions controlled by them over the past 9 years. However, these allegations, while circulating freely in the Bulgarian media and society, have not been proven legally, and have not been recognized as illegal and/or threatening activities by state institutions.

Ahmed Dogan is currently facing trial for allegedly pocketing BGN 1.5 M as a consultant of four large-scale hydroelectricity projects, funded by the state - 'Tsankov Kamak', 'Dospat', 'Gorna Arda' and 'Tundzha' Dam while his party was part of the former governments.

Even if proven guilty on these charges, he will only get away with a fine of BGN 1000-BGN 3000.

The Bulgarian revenue agency is also inspecting the properties and wealth of 24 singers and 400 football referees. It has been discovered so far that 12 of the pop and pop-folk singers evaded paying a total of BGN 3 M in taxes to the state.

"After our inspections, some of the music companies registered some of the singers with proper labor contracts and monthly salaries of BGN 30 000," Stefanov explained.

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