Long time clients will know that every so often I warn you of the amazing lengths to which one is expected to go in order to ensure that some judge won't come along and find you guilty of use of fictitious invoices.
But this one is like miles off the wall.
In the case of one Yoav Tal the said gentleman went to the extent of getting a certificate that a certain major supplier was duly registered at the VAT office, no mean feat in the last century when this information was not yet available at the touch of a button and if you did manage to get hold of the right pakid he was perfectly capable of refusing to co-operate. What our man did not know was that the VAT file was opened in April, closed in May and the supplier started working with him in June. THIS DID NOT MAKE AN IMPRESSION ON THE JUDGE.
So let's see. What do we have to do before involving ourselves in a transaction?
- Contact https://www.shaam.gov.il/emosek/fset.htm to see that the supplier is registered at the VAT office. Do not expect our office to do this for you unless you give specific instructions in writing.
- Make sure that you are contractually involved with the precise entity (by name, address and registered number) mentioned in the above registration and also in the tax invoices it issues.
- Make sure that you have written and oral evidence from the entity itself that the person(s) representing it before you is/are indeed authorized to enter into a contractual relationship with you and to issue tax invoices on its behalf.
- Make sure that you are buying goods or services which may logically be provided by the particular supplier (one I once squelched was programming services purchased by a hi-tech machinery manufacturer from a private bus company...).
- Go through all this at intervals likely to be considered sufficiently regular by the beak to let you off with a warning. In this case that would have to be at least every month!
And that doesn't even begin to touch the income tax and bookkeeping requirements, which are beyond the scope of this bulletin.
