Tax offences and the entity’s liability under D.Lgs. 231/2001

Tax offences and the entity’s liability under D.Lgs. 231/2001

Since 2019 the main tax offences (fraudulent tax return, issuing false invoices, concealing accounting records, fraudulent removal of assets from collection) have been predicate offences for liability under D.Lgs. 231/2001: alongside the individuals concerned, the entity itself is liable, facing fines of up to several hundred units and disqualification measures.

The thresholds: many return-related offences arise only above thresholds of tax evaded and of income concealed; fraud and false invoicing, by contrast, are punishable with no threshold at all.

The safeguard: a 231 organisational model kept up to date for tax risk (a tax control framework, procedures for incoming invoices, supplier selection, handling of anomalies) can relieve the entity of liability.

If charges are brought: preventive seizure, including seizure of equivalent value, may be ordered against the entity’s assets, while payment of the tax debt counts as a mitigating factor or, for some offences, as a ground for exemption from punishment.

The firm combines tax advice with a criminal-tax reading of the facts, working with the criminal defence lawyers of the network, from prevention (the 231 model) through to handling the audit itself.

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