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The Tax Administration says it uncovered 11 million euros in unpaid taxes during stepped-up audits of restaurants over the past two years. During that time, approximately 370 restaurant companies were inspected – mainly pizza, kebab and Chinese eateries. The unpaid taxes included income taxes, value-added taxes, withholding taxes and other employer payments, the administration said on Thursday. In almost 200 cases, or some 53 percent of establishments that were probed, such serious problems were found that they were handed over for possible criminal prosecution. In addition, more than 450 reports were passed on to other authorities for issues such as suspected benefits fraud, failure to pay pension contributions and money laundering. "Misconduct more common in foreign-owned companies" "The targets of the inspections were selected based on our own risk analysis. According to our study, a restaurant that evades taxes is typically a small or medium-sized bar, kebab or pizzeria restaurant," Tarja Valsi, director of the Administration's tax crime division, said in a press release on Thursday. "The results show that the selection of targets was very successful and that the inspections focused on those who are most likely to act improperly," she said, adding that compared to Finnish restaurant companies, "all types of misconduct are clearly more common in foreign-owned companies". A similar programme that concluded in 2022 found nearly 20 million euros in unpaid taxes in the restaurant sector over the previous five years.
