Tax evasion crime unit established by the Attorney General in Bahrain

Recently a Tax evasion crime unit is established by the Attorney general in Bahrain. The new unit set up is in affiliation with the Financial Crimes and Money Laundering Prosecution, the new unit will investigate the crimes stipulated in the Value Added Tax Law No. (48) of 2018.

The main aim of this unit is to the executive procedures regarding the application of the provisions of the law to reduce the increasing cases of tax evasion. “Due to the seriousness of these crimes, the legislator classifies cases of tax evasion as felonies involving breach of honour, incurring a prison sentence of up to five years, in addition to a fine not less than the value of the tax due and up to three times it”, said Chancellor Nayef Yusef Mahmoud.

The main focus of this department would be to speed up the investigation of the reports related to the violation of the provisions of this law, in line with the requirements of the law for the urgent consideration and referral to the courts. The Attorney General has directed the need to check whether the reports fulfill all the legal requirements specified in the law or not and to speed up the completion of investigations and follow up on the court rulings.The law permits reconciliation in these crimes after paying the incurred fines.