The Israel Tax Authority is investigating suspicions that the company Tim International Transport and its owner committed customs and VAT offenses worth millions of shekels through the import of goods to warehouses of e-commerce giants AliExpress and Alibaba in Israel. The company commented: “What began with a great flourish will end with a faint sound.”
Investigators from the Tax Authority’s Import Control Unit at Ben-Gurion Airport Customs, together with the VAT Accounts Audit Department in the Dan District, are conducting an investigation against Tim International Transport, its owner and the responsible customs agent. They are suspected of smuggling goods, underreporting prices, submitting false declarations to customs, evading VAT payments, unlawfully offsetting input VAT and issuing zero-rated VAT invoices illegally.
According to the detention request, the suspect and the company acted as the actual importers for private and commercial buyers purchasing from AliExpress and Alibaba. They allegedly declared lower values, paid reduced customs duties and VAT and unlawfully claimed input VAT deductions.
It is further alleged that the owner had a contractual agreement with USPEED in China, Alibaba’s representative, to import goods into leased warehouses of Alibaba in Israel. Through consolidated shipments, costs and delivery times for private and commercial buyers were reduced. After being released from customs, the goods were transferred to these warehouses and from there distributed to customers who had purchased through Alibaba — without issuing invoices and without paying the VAT required according to the actual purchase value.