Hundreds of Finns still waiting for their confiscated alcohol

Internet off-licence Viinikauppa.com under suspicion of tax fraud

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At least around three hundred Finns are waiting impatiently to see whether they will ever receive the alcohol they ordered from Internet off-licence Viinikauppa.com, or if they will ever get their money back.
      The Finnish Customs have confiscated some 44,000 litres of Viinikauppa.com's alcoholic beverages.
      The online off-licence harassed by the Customs still continues its Internet operations, in spite of the Customs having impounded two truckloads of its liquor at the end of last year.
      The persons running the company are also under suspicion of aggravated tax evasion, but the Customs refuse to elaborate on this subject.
     
According to the Customs, Viinikauppa.com has imported hundreds of thousands of litres of different kinds of alcoholic beverages into Finland. The tax on liquor, worth at least EUR one million, has not been paid for these drinks.
      The Viinikauppa.com website has been in operation for a couple of years, and through it thousands of Finns have purchased remarkably cheap alcohol imported from Germany. The drinks have been delivered to the customer's doorstep.
      The Customs went after Viinikauppa.com, because the company lacks a tax representative in Finland. In the Customs' view, Viinikauppa.com practices offshore trading, and should therefore have a tax representative, whose responsibility is to make sure the excise tax gets properly paid on the trader's behalf.
      Furthermore, in the Customs' view, it is Viinikauppa.com as the importer who is liable for the excise tax, rather than their customers, for the alcohol was brought in under the company's name.
      After a suspicion of crime arose, the Customs have carried out house searches, in conjunction with which documents have been confiscated. The Customs officials' aim is to find out exactly how extensive Viinikauppa.com's business has been.
     
According to senior inspector Minna Reijonen of the Customs, tax has to be paid for alcohol ordered through the Internet. Travellers, in turn, can bring in tax-free alcohol for their private use.
      "Should the dealer choose to pay the tax, the products could be immediately returned to them to be further delivered to customers", Reijonen says.
      The issue is not likely to be solved in any great hurry, as the company has already appealed for its own part to the Administrative Court on the confiscation of the shipments. The Administrative Court's ruling will at best take some months.
      Of thousands of Viinikauppa.com's customers, only ten have visited the Customs to pay the excise tax on the purchased products.
      There have also been bars and restaurants among the company's clients.
     
Viinikauppa.com representative Kari Sjöblom reveals that the total number of their customers has topped 6,000.
      When asked if some of the clients may lose their money, Sjöblom answers: "Not if it is up to us. We hand the ordered products according to the terms of delivery to the customer's chosen carrier."
      "I would advise our clients to file a complaint against the Customs."
      Sjöblom also plans to file a request for investigation of the Customs' conduct. On their website, the Customs say that some of the companies importing alcohol into Finland are operating illegally.
      "We would like the police to investigate who are being accused here, and on what grounds. There are no court decisions to rule that anyone has acted illegally."
     
The Customs, in turn, advise anyone buying alcohol over the Internet to make sure that the seller has a tax representative in Finland.
      The excise tax is collected upon the importation of the product, even if the product has already been taxed once in the country of origin, or in another EU country.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Record liquor sales in Tallinn stores over weekend as Finns hoard cheap alcohol (3.5.2004)

Links:
  Viinikauppa.com
  Finnish Customs

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