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Silvia
Cancedda |
David
Jakovljevic |
Many Croatian entrepreneurs have recently received a letter
urging them to apply for a so-called EBN (European business
number). The letter contains a form with a fictitious deadline
and was sent to a large number of recipients to multiple
countries, this time particularly targeting Dutch companies. It
is not the first time that the Hamburg-based company DAD
Deutscher Adressdienst GmbH has sent such forms throughout
Europe. The Croatian Chamber of Commerce already reacted to
such a scam in August 2016 when it published a detailed warning
about the EBN number.
What is the scam about?
DAD Deutscher Adressdienst GmbH sends a letter to an
entrepreneur's physical address, with an invitation to submit
– within an indicated deadline – a
confirmation of the accuracy of the company's data (company
name, address, VAT ID number, etc.). The entrepreneur is
invited to return the signed form, enclosed to the letter, to
the address of DAD Deutscher Adressdienst GmbH. The invitation
refers to certain legal provisions and the obligation of
aligning the VAT ID number with the European legislation,
creating thus the illusion of an official EU registry. But in
fact, by signing such a form, the company enters into a
contractual obligation for an entirely useless service
(inscription into the private registry of a German company).
The service is quite expensive and often provided for more than
one year. Terminating such a contract, especially
retroactively, tends to be very laborious.
DAD Deutscher Adressdienst GmbH is most persistent in this
scam, but it is not the only entity involved in it. The Dutch
company, EU Business Register, and the Swiss company,
Intercable Verlag for its registry Global (European) Internet
Register, are known for such scams and are not new to
Croatia.
Croatian companies should be reminded that the VAT ID number
in Croatia is assigned by the Croatian Tax Administration and
the existence and validity of any VAT ID number within EU can
be at any time verified online, without a fee, at the official
EU registry website, VIES (VAT Information Exchange System),
available at ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies. The Croatian
Tax Administration has a legal obligation to exchange VAT ID
numbers' information with EU bodies and no further action is
required from entrepreneurs in this sense. The Tax
Administration itself has repeated this warning and published
it on August 14 2017 on its own website.
The warnings issued by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce can
be accessed from the below links (in Croatian only):
www.hgk.hr/upozorenje-european-business-number-ebn and
www.hgk.hr/upozorenje-poduzetnicima-cuvajte-se-prevare-pri-popunjavanju-obrazaca-za-poslovne-adresare.
Silvia Cancedda and David Jakovljevic (zagreb@eurofast.eu)
Eurofast Croatia
Tel: +385 1 7980 646
Website: www.eurofast.eu