THE owners of an electronics megastore, which went out of business last year, are in hot water after being charged with evading BD83,000 in value-added tax (VAT) owed to the government.
A Bahraini man, along with his son and daughter, who owned the store, are standing trial at the High Criminal Court on charges of tax evasion. The now-defunct store is also listed a defendant in the court case, and is on trial as an ‘artificial person’.
According to court documents, the VAT amounts were received from customers, who paid them with their purchases of taxable products, but were not passed along to the National Bureau for Revenue (NBR).
The defendants, aged 67, 44 and 43, admitted to charges and reportedly said that ‘debts piled up on the company’, and they had run out of money to pay their taxes.
The store’s records on commercial registration (CR) portal, Sijilat, indicate that the business was ‘suspended’ by the National Bureau for Revenue.
Case files allege that the suspects owe BD83,020 in VAT to the NBR, and have not taken action regarding the outstanding amounts, neither during nor after the legally-mandated period of 120 days. This led the NBR to move the lawsuit against the defendants, asking the Public Prosecution to go ahead and take the matter to court.
In a statement to prosecutors, an NBR inspector stated that the company registered for tax purposes in 2019 and had been filing monthly tax reports since 2020.
Although it regularly filed its tax reports on revenue generated by the business to the NBR, it failed to clear its balance. Between October 2022 and September 2024, a total of 22 tax reports were submitted by the company, except for the months of July and August 2024.
This coincided with the date of the store’s last post on social media, having in the past been active in sharing deals and offers from the showroom.
Opened 20 years ago in Isa Town, the store sold not only electronic devices and appliances, but also toys, household items, cookware, apparel, sporting goods and more. The company had a licence to practice 10 business activities.
The defendants were given a list of steps to rectify their status. Judges adjourned the hearing to December 14 to give them an opportunity to submit proof to the court that the outstanding amount had been paid to the NBR.
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