After being convicted in the past of tax offenses: Insurance agent tried to conceal transactions worth over one million shekels

The Magistrate's Court in Netanya sentenced Daniel Meir, an insurance agent and manager of "Danny Meir Insurance Agency for Life Insurance Ltd.", to 12 months in prison and a fine of 12,000 shekels. Meir was convicted of concealing transactions worth over one million shekels from his VAT reports in order to evade tax payment. According to the amended indictment, to which Meir confessed as part of a plea deal, between 2018 and 2020 transactions totaling approximately 1.52 million shekels were carried out. Of this amount, transactions worth about 1.14 million shekels were omitted from their VAT reports. The tax evaded from the state due to the concealed transactions amounted to 166,127 shekels. It also emerged that a debt of 40,676 shekels was collected through payments and collection actions by the Tax Authority, while the remaining debt is still due. The court accepted the Tax Authority's position to impose on Meir the upper limit of 12 months in prison, partly due to his criminal record for tax offenses. The verdict noted that Meir had already been convicted of a similar offense in the past, and that he committed the current crimes while the previous criminal proceeding against him was ongoing. Judge Guy Avnon determined that the previous proceedings did not deter him from returning to commit tax offenses. The case was managed by attorney Merav Yuli from the Netanya VAT office.