Criminal tax offences in the Czech timber trade: A judicial practice analysis

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F62156489%3A43410%2F25%3A43927504" target="_blank" >RIV/62156489:43410/25:43927504 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.17221/36/2025-JFS" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.17221/36/2025-JFS</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17221/36/2025-JFS" target="_blank" >10.17221/36/2025-JFS</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Criminal tax offences in the Czech timber trade: A judicial practice analysis

Original language description

This article presents a doctrinal legal analysis of judicial practice concerning criminal tax offences in the Czech timber trade, with a primary focus on VAT fraud. Court decisions were examined thematically to identify key categories of fraud schemes, recurring evidentiary challenges, and patterns of judicial reasoning. Administrative and regulatory frameworks, such as the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), have played only a marginal role in Czech judicial practice, with a single decision explicitly referring to the EUTR. The findings highlight how courts rely on indicators such as fictitious supply chains, economically irrational transactions, and incomplete documentation to establish fraudulent intent. The study contributes to a better understanding of judicial reasoning in tax fraud cases and offers evidence-based recommendations for strengthening enforcement practice. The article focuses on Criminal Tax Law, i.e. examples of tax fraud in the timber trade that were not dealt with by the tax authorities as administrative offences but were assessed as criminal tax offences falling within the jurisdiction of criminal courts. Criminal Tax Law is a subfield of Czech Tax Law dealing with criminal activity in the area of tax and fee administration. (Lichnovský et al. 2020). The article contains all court decisions in the field of Criminal Tax Law dealing with the issue of timber trade. The article deals only with the criminal law aspects of tax law. No other court decisions were found in the Automated Legal Information System (ASPI). The ASPI legal information system contains only one court decision relating to the EUTR Regulation, which is cited below. Criminal cases in the field of forestry and timber industry constitute only a small part of the entire criminal tax law. In terms of the method of committing the criminal activity (issuing fictitious invoices, fictitious deliveries of goods), these are common frauds common to all economic activities.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50202 - Applied Economics, Econometrics

Project

<a href="/en/project/QL24020204" target="_blank" >QL24020204: Impacts of territorial nature protection on the management of forest owners and the wood-processing sector</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Journal of Forest Science

ISSN

1212-4834

e-ISSN

1805-935X

Volume of the periodical

71

Issue of the periodical within the volume

9

Country of publishing house

CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC

Number of pages

12

Pages from-to

456-467

UT code for WoS article

001586134500004

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105017970862