A record fine of BGN 285 000 has been imposed on the manager of a Bulgarian company because of a tax evasion attempt.

The fine has been imposed by the National Revenue Agency after its officials found that the manager in question tried to sell the company's assets below the market price in order to evade paying the respective dues and social security payments.

The Sofia-based company owed the state budget hundreds of thousands of leva, and in order to prevent the distraint on its assets by the Revenue Agency, the manager started selling them. While the audit of the firm was in progress, he managed to sell three company cars and a client's debt to it.

The tax inspectors discovered that he thus reduced the value of the company managed by him with BGN 285 000, and decided to employ a "solidarity responsibility" clause of the Bulgarian legislation, meaning that the manage will have to pay himself a fine amounting to the sum that he subtracted form the value of the company assets with his actions.

According to the head of the National Revenue Agency, Krasimir Stefanov, the institution is going to apply much more widely the solidarity responsibility clause in its work with respect to physical persons – managers or board members of commercial companies; this is supposed to be in response to frequent "sales" of indebted firms to poor, unemployed, sick people, or illiterate people from the ethnic minorities.

Stefanov also wants new legislation banning the participation in commercial companies of persons who are proven to have committed multiple tax frauds.

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