Chinese authorities seize 350m illegal invoices

BEIJING - Taxation authorities on Tuesday vowed to crack down on crimes related to the use of fake invoices, as unchecked violations lead to the loss of billions of yuan in revenues every year.

Taxation law-enforcement departments captured 5,036 criminal suspects who allegedly counterfeited and sold more than 350 million fake invoices last year, said Ma Yimin, director of the Inspection Department of the State Administration of Taxation.

Some 7.1 billion yuan ($1.12 billion) in tax revenues was recovered last year as a result of investigations into more than 80,000 enterprises using counterfeit invoices, Ma said.

Taxation authorities have yet to effectively supervise and monitor the use of fake invoices due to legal loopholes, the official said.

The investigations revealed that 82 agencies of the central authorities faked expenditure receipts and wrote false value-added invoices last year, withdrawing funds totaling 414 million yuan.