Selling subscriptions to pirate IPTV services is illegal. But what is even more important is not paying your share to the State in the form of VAT. There we are no longer joking.
There are many things in life that you cannot escape. Among other things, the day/night cycle, aging and VAT. This famous Value added tax which we find on all our receipts and which the State collects. It is also the tax that brings in the most. It doesn’t matter whether you sell a good or a service, unless there are specific exceptions, you are obliged to invoice your customers. But what does this reminder of high school economics lessons have to do with hacking? To understand, head to Sweden.
In this country, like many others, illegal IPTV services are on the rise. Rights holders may make regular reports, but sometimes there are simply not enough human and material resources to deal with them. pirate stream sellers. But if the latter are already practicing reprehensible activity, they have committed an even more serious crime: earn money without paying part of it to the State in the form of VAT. This is where the Skatteverketthe Swedish agency responsible for collecting it, gets involved.
A country demands 3.2 million euros in VAT arrears from 80 pirates
“Between 2021 and 2023, the Swedish Tax Agency has carried out investigations against those selling illegal IPTV services to consumers. To identify sellers, [elle] carried out test purchases and also searched for sellers on the internet. This resulted in the identification of approximately 200 retailers, of which 97 were selected for further investigation,” the report reads. Unsurprisingly, investigations show that the vast majority of pirates do not declare their income and do not charge VAT to their clients.
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In total, the amount Sweden is now seeking to recover is 3.2 million euros approximately. Skatteverket specifies that 17 investigations are still ongoing and that the figure is likely to rise. Note that this is not a sanction for pirating streams or selling them, but rather for attempt to avoid VAT and income tax. This is surely preferable to a prison sentence of more than 30 years that said.
Source: TorrentFreak