Cheap Chinese solar panels targeted in tax fraud bust

The Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service, FIOD, raided a company in Rotterdam on Tuesday in an investigation into import duties and tax evasion in the import of cheap Chinese solar panels. The Tax Authorities believe that this case could involve 40 million euros in import duties evasion in the Netherlands and Germany. The FIOD is working closely with the German customs in this investigation. The services believe that the same suspects also illegally imported large quantities of solar panels through the port of Hamburg. In 2013 the European Commission implemented extra import levies on Chinese solar panels. This was done in an effort to prevent the cheap Chinese panels being dumped on the European market and thereby supplant European models. According to the tax authorities, the suspects avoid paying the additional import duties by relabeling the Chinese solar panels during stopovers in other Asian countries, such as in the free ports of Taiwan or Japan. The Chinese panels are supplied with false stickers and invoices to make it look like they have been produced in those countries and thus do not have to pay the additional duties.