The coal industry is a high risk area for tax-related risks. In the past, due to the proliferation of small coal kilns for illegal coal mining, the mined coal could not be sold through normal channels, and enterprises purchasing coal invoiced through a third party. In recent years, with the deepening of the policies of removing production capacity, accelerating energy transformation, and promoting environmental protection, coal production capacity has begun to be controlled around the world, and coal-using enterprises purchasing over-mined coal need to look for a third party to issue invoices. The demand for invoicing has given rise to the invoicing industry, and some senior executives of state-owned coal purchasing and marketing enterprises have used the qualifications of state-owned enterprises to engage in invoicing for the purpose of falsely increasing their performance, which has triggered the risk of false invoicing.

I. Shanxi 6 coal enterprises false open special ticket 74.41 million, but no one was sentenced to real punishment

By the author in China referee network search, concerned about the Shanxi has such a series of cases of coal false billing. The series of cases, Shuangliao Shuangfa Mineral Products Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shuangfa) and other five private mineral products distribution enterprises to Shanxi Coal Transportation and Marketing Group Datong Guangling Limited (hereinafter referred to as Guangling, the state-owned coal purchasing and marketing enterprises) false VAT invoices, false invoices amounted to more than 74.41 million yuan, the tax amount of 12.65 million yuan. A number of public officials from the sales side, purchasing side, and tax authorities were involved in the criminal case, but none of the persons involved were sentenced to actual imprisonment. The specific adjudication situation is as follows:

(I) the invoicing party constituted false invoicing and was sentenced to two years (suspended for three years)

At the beginning of 2012, Liu Mou opened Shuangfa Company at the suggestion of Wang Mou, and Guo Mou was introduced by Liu Mou to join the company. Shuangfa company was established without entity operating business, mainly engaged in activities: in the absence of real goods transactions, the purchase of oil invoices for the company's inputs, in the Shuangliao City State Taxation Bureau certification, in the absence of real goods transactions, the name of the goods for the sale of coal and iron ore, etc. to the outside world, the false opening of special invoices for value-added tax. After the case, Wang died on March 25, 2014 by suicide. The public prosecution alleged that Shuangfa had falsely issued VAT invoices totaling 25.92 million yuan for Anyang Guangming Industrial Company of Henan Province and Huafeng Coal Company of Henan Province, constituting the crime of falsely issuing VAT invoices. In addition, according to the judgment of another case, Shuangfa had falsely issued VAT invoices for Guangling, but the public prosecution did not make any accusation.

The court held that Liu Mou and Guo Mou were instructed by Wang Mou to participate in the joint crime, played a secondary and helping role, were accomplices, and should be mitigated according to the law. They were sentenced to two years' imprisonment and three years' probation for the crime of false invoicing of VAT. Except for Shuangfa, the other four invoicing parties had been revoked or canceled at the time of the crime, and the whereabouts of the real controller were unknown, and they were not held criminally liable.

(II) The ticketed parties have been remanded twice and no judgment has been rendered to date

During the period from April to June 2012, Guangling accepted a total of 80 VAT invoices falsely issued by the above five companies under the circumstance that there was no real goods transaction with Shuangfa Company, Shuangliao City Xinyuan Mineral Products Distribution Co. 176.41 yuan, the tax amount was 12,650,749.99 yuan, and 12,650,749.99 yuan was deducted from the tax with the above invoices. The above acts of false VAT invoicing were carried out by Wang Mouwei, the manager of Guangling Company (a separate case), and Zhou Mousheng, the deputy manager, in order to complete the work tasks of the higher unit and seek illegal economic benefits for the unit, and were completed with Ma Mou (deceased) and others, knowing that no real business had taken place. Evidence in the case shows that Shanxi Coal Transportation and Marketing Group Datong Co., Ltd. issued the 2012 annual business target responsibility letter and documents, requiring Guangling Company to achieve certain performance and task volume in 2012. The Public Prosecution charged Zhou Mousheng with false VAT invoicing and recommended a sentence of more than ten years.

The court of first instance held that, in view of the behavior of Guangling Company and Zhou Mousheng in falsely issuing VAT invoices, which was for the purpose of completing the tasks issued by the superior unit and improving the efficiency performance of the unit, and in the process of falsely issuing VAT invoices, they did not seek personal benefits and advantages, such as sentencing to fixed-term imprisonment of more than ten years which was obviously not suitable for their crimes and responsibilities, so it was decided to impose the sentence below the statutory penalty, as they did not have the statutory mitigating circumstances. The circumstances, shall be reported to the supreme people's court for approval at each level. At the first instance, Zhou Mousheng was convicted of the crime of falsely issuing VAT invoices and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. After the case was adjudicated, Zhou Mousheng appealed, and the court of second instance found that some of the facts of the first instance were unclear, quashed the original judgment and remanded the case for retrial. The court of first instance retrial judgment results in the same, ZhouMouSheng again appeal, the court of second instance found that the first instance retrial part of the facts are not clear, the application of the law is wrong, and once again revoked the original verdict, remanded for retrial. The case has not yet seen an effective judgment. In addition, the effective judgment of Wang Mouwei, who was dealt with in a separate case, has not been seen.

(III) Public Officials of Tax Authorities Constituting Negligence of Duty, Exempt from Criminal Penalties

From 2012 to 2013, Wang Moukun, during his tenure as head of the Tax Source Management Section of the Shuangliao City State Taxation Bureau, did not fulfill his duties according to the regulations in the process of general taxpayer identification, invoice expansion and incremental increase, and cancellation of tax registration of 22 enterprises such as Shuangfa and Shuangliao Xinyuan Mineral Products Distribution Co, Ltd, and caused a loss of national tax money of 74,795 million yuan as a result of the lack of daily management and checking links in the use of invoices. million yuan.

The court held that at the beginning of 2012, there was a sudden increase in the number of companies applying for general taxpayer qualification and invoice expansion and increase in the number of invoices to the tax authorities, in this case, Wang Moukun should have recognized that the incident of false VAT invoices might occur, because of negligence and over-confidence, he didn't recognize the consequences of false VAT invoices, and didn't carry out on-site inspection on 22 enterprises, so Wang Moukun had a dereliction of duty for the consequences of the false VAT invoices. The consequences of the invoices bear the responsibility of dereliction of duty. Wang Moukun in the process of tax deregistration for enterprises, not according to the operating procedures, to operate only 3 months of enterprises in a few working days for all the tax deregistration, did not find the enterprise false VAT invoices in a timely manner, dereliction of duty. In view of the criminal act of false VAT invoices issued by the enterprise and Wang Moukun's dereliction of duty does not have a causal relationship in criminal law, according to the principle of appropriateness of crime and responsibility, and the degree of subjective fault, combined with the objective reasons and specific circumstances at the time of the case, the first instance verdict that Wang Moukun constitutes the crime of dereliction of duty, and sentenced to exemption from criminal punishment.

(IV) summary

In this series of cases, the amount of invoices involved totaled 74,410,000 yuan, but in the end, only the invoicing party and the public officials of the tax authorities were convicted, and only the invoicing party was sentenced to imprisonment (probation), and none of them carried out the actual sentence. Although the final verdict was affected by factors such as the suicide of Wang Mou of the invoicing party, the loss of contact of the real controller of the four invoicing parties, the failure of the Public Prosecution Office of the invoicing party to supplement the indictment, and the handling of the invoiced party in a separate case, the effective defense strategies adopted by all parties can still be unearthed from the view of the existing public verdicts.

II. from the Shanxi coal enterprise false opening series of cases to see the coal industry false opening of the five major defense strategy

(I) The division of responsibility between principal and accessory

In cases involving tickets, there are often invoicing party, the party receiving the ticket, the party over the ticket and other types of subjects, each type of subject and there may be more than one party, respectively, responsible for the negotiation, information transfer, finance and other work. The behaviors implemented by different parties are different, the role and influence on the crime are different, and the responsibility borne is also different. The first step in the defense of the case of coal false opening is to do a good job in the division of responsibility, accurately identifying the objective behavior of the parties, evaluating the status of the parties in the case, and roughly calculating the scope of responsibility that they may bear.

For example, in this case, Shuangfa Company was arranged by Wang Mou to set up, by Wang Mou's main control of the company. Although Liu Mou and Guo Mou contacted the invoicing business and carried out specific invoicing acts, they were not initiators and instructors and were not treated as accomplices. From the point of view of criminal law jurisprudence, although there is no natural relationship between the abettor and the perpetrator, the abettor is usually not considered to play a secondary role, and the perpetrator varies according to the specific content of the act, and may be recognized as a principal offender or an accessory in the same way as the abettor.

In addition to the subjective aspect (whether or not the intention to commit the crime was initiated) and the objective aspect (whether or not the main criminal act was committed), the division of responsibility may be justified by the beneficiary situation. For example, among the staff of the invoiced party, Zhou Mou Sheng did not seek personal gain or benefit in the process of false invoicing, which may side by side indicate that he was not the initiator, and this circumstance was also used by the court as a reference for sentencing. On the whole, the party responsible for negotiation and building business is easy to be recognized as the principal offender, while the party responsible for information transmission and financial work is usually not the principal offender, except for expanding the invoicing business at the same time. The focus is to make the punishment fit the crime, for the prosecution alleges that the failure to engage in the behavior should be firmly denied.

(II) Subjective No Intention to Fraudulently Offset VAT

Whether false invoicing is a purposeful crime is a long-lasting thesis. Since the criminalization of false opening, the conservative faction represented by the tax authorities has been advocating that false opening does not belong to the purpose crime, the main reason is that China's criminal law has never stipulated the subjective constituent elements of false opening, and the method of interpreting false opening should be strictly applied, and it is not possible to "wishfully" think that the composition of the false opening crime contains the following elements "for the purpose of tax evasion".

The innovation school represented by lawyers advocates that the crime of false opening of VAT invoices is a purpose crime, i.e., only when the perpetrator "aims at cheating the state tax" can it be recognized as false opening. The main reason is that false invoicing should be interpreted as a purpose, and the legislative purpose of false invoicing can be proved by the following facts:

1. The Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Punishing the Crimes of False Opening, Counterfeiting and Illegal Sale of Value-added Tax Invoices mentions that "in order to punish the false opening, counterfeiting and illegal sale of value-added tax invoices and other invoices for the purpose of tax evasion, tax cheating and other crimes, and to safeguard the national tax", which shows that at the very beginning of the incrimination of false opening, the legislative purpose is to crack down on the crime of false opening of value-added tax invoices. The purpose of the legislation is to combat tax evasion and tax fraud through false opening of VAT invoices. Therefore, the subjective element of "for the purpose of tax evasion and tax fraud" should be included in the criminal composition of false invoicing.

2, false invoicing into the Criminal Law, June 4, 2002, the Supreme People's Court Vice President Liu Jiachen in Chongqing, held a national court to hear economic crime cases in the work of the symposium speech pointed out that, "Although Article 205 of the Criminal Law does not provide for the purpose of the elements of the crime, but the crime of false opening of value-added tax invoices in endangering the tax collection and management of the crime, according to the legislative intent, should have the purpose of stealing and cheating the tax. should have the purpose of tax evasion".

3. The Supreme People's Court held a symposium on the trial of economic crime cases in some courts across the country from November 24 to 27, 2004 in Suzhou City. In the overview of the symposium, it was clearly pointed out that "for the following kinds of false invoicing behaviors in practice, it is generally inappropriate to recognize them as crimes of false VAT invoicing: (1) for the purpose of falsely increasing the turnover, expanding the sales revenues or creating false prosperity, the behaviors of mutual folio or ring-fencing of VAT invoices; (2) in the process of sales of goods, the general taxpayers, for the purpose of exaggerating the sales performance, falsely increase the number of sales links of goods and falsely issue input VAT invoices and output VAT invoices. (2) In the process of sales of goods, a general taxpayer, in order to exaggerate the sales performance, falsely increases the sales link of goods, falsely opens special invoices for input VAT and special invoices for output VAT, but pays VAT according to law and does not cause the loss of state tax; (3) In order to exaggerate the economic strength of the enterprise, through the false opening of special invoices for input VAT falsely increases the fixed assets of the enterprise, but does not utilize the VAT invoices for offsetting tax, and does not suffer the loss of state tax". It can be seen that the subjective purpose of the perpetrator is one of the factors to be considered in the constitution of the crime of false invoicing.

4.The Opinions of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Giving Full Play to Procuratorial Functions to Serve and Guarantee the Six Stabilizers and Six Guarantees state that "attention should be paid to grasping the boundaries between general tax-related offenses and tax-related offenses aimed at fraudulently obtaining state tax money, and the subjective purpose of the perpetrator is one of the factors to be considered in the constitution of false invoicing. For enterprises with actual production and operation activities, if they falsely issue VAT invoices for the purpose of inflating performance, financing, loaning and other non-tax fraudulent purposes without causing loss of tax, they shall not be characterized as the crime of falsely issuing VAT invoices, and if a decision of not prosecuting is made in accordance with the law, they shall be transferred to the tax authorities to be subjected to administrative penalties".

5. In the case of Lu Caixing, the court held that "offsetting tax" in the crime of falsely issuing invoices for offsetting tax as stipulated in Article 205 of the Criminal Law has a specific meaning, and if the perpetrator falsely issued invoices that can be used to offset tax, if his subjective intention is not to use the invoices for offsetting tax, and objectively did not offset the tax, but used the invoices for other purposes, then he cannot use the falsely issued invoices, then he cannot be punished for the crime of falsely issuing VAT invoices. If the subjective intention of the perpetrator is not to use the invoice for tax deduction, and objectively he does not go for tax deduction, but for other purposes to use the invoice, the crime of false invoicing for tax deduction cannot be characterized. This case law confirms the rule that the crime of falsely issuing VAT invoices for the purpose of fraudulently obtaining export tax refunds and tax credit invoices must be committed for the purpose of fraudulently obtaining taxes, which in fact confirms that this crime is a purposeful crime. If the perpetrator does not have the intention to offset tax, even if he has committed the act of falsely opening invoices for offsetting tax, he cannot be convicted and punished for the crime of falsely opening invoices for offsetting tax.

In summary, all kinds of bases including laws, judicial interpretations, speeches of the leaders of the Supreme Court, opinions of the Supreme Prosecutor, and guiding cases, either through positive elaboration or through negative enumeration, advocate that the subjective intention of fraudulent offsetting of VAT is required to constitute the crime of fraudulent invoicing and at the same time explicitly exclude fraudulent invoicing for the purpose of inflating performance from the scope of the crime. In the aforesaid case, the court recognized that the acts of Guangling Company and Zhou Mousheng of falsely issuing VAT invoices were for the purpose of completing the tasks issued by the superior unit and improving the efficiency performance of the unit, and for this reason, in the absence of any other mitigating circumstances of Zhou Mousheng, it was reported to the Supreme Court for approval of the reduction of penalties, which demonstrated the significance of the subjective aspect of the defense of the constituent elements.

(III) Objective failure to cause loss of state VAT

In fact, prior to August 21, 2018, loss of state tax had been one of the criteria for the conviction and sentencing of the crime of false invoicing. The Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Punishing the Crimes of False Issuance, Counterfeiting and Illegal Sale of VAT Special Invoice (Fa Fa [1996] No. 30) stipulated that the amount of the national tax money fraudulently lost as a result of false opening of VAT special invoices was the statutory sentencing criterion. However, after August 22, 2018, Law [2018] No. 226 was issued, and the amount of falsely issued tax became the only conviction and sentencing standard for the crime of false invoicing.

In our view, just as the legislation does not expressly stipulate the subjective aspect elements of this crime, whether the conditions of causing loss of national tax should be met to constitute the crime of false invoicing should be comprehensively determined with full consideration of the purpose of the legislation, the basic principle of the criminal law of the appropriateness of crime and punishment, and with the combination of the principle of value-added tax levy and the system of management of value-added tax special invoices. From the point of view of the appropriateness of crime and punishment, the severity of punishment should be appropriate to the crime committed and the criminal responsibility borne by the criminal, which is one of the basic principles of criminal law. The statutory maximum penalty for the crime of false VAT invoicing is life imprisonment, which is a serious crime. If the act does not actually cause the loss of national tax money, the maximum penalty of life imprisonment is obviously not matched with the social harm of the act. Further more, the statutory maximum penalty for the crime of false general invoicing is seven years' imprisonment. The substantial difference between VAT special invoices and ordinary invoices is that VAT special invoices can be used to offset VAT input tax. If the fraudulent issuance of VAT special invoices does not result in VAT loss to the state, the social harm of its substance is almost equivalent to the crime of false invoicing and deserves the same punishment as the crime of false invoicing.

The Supreme People's Court Guidance Case No. 119 "He Tao's Case of False VAT Invoicing", included in the 19th collection of the Supreme People's Court's "Criminal Trial Reference", can illustrate this issue. In this case, Defendant He Tao, together with Xu Zhenping, fraudulently issued a total of 227 VAT invoices in the name of Maanshan Company, Xinghui Company and Dali Company for 17 units, including Lanzhou Zhengrin Nongken Foods Company Limited, for a tax amount of RMB 10,489,842.68. The units receiving the invoices used the said invoices to offset the tax amount. The units receiving the invoices used the above invoices to offset the tax amount of RMB 9,362,264.67. By the time the investigation of the case was finalized, RMB 3,704,664.81 of the tax deducted by the invoiced units had been recovered, and RMB 5,657,599.86 remained unrecovered. While falsely issuing VAT invoices for others, Defendant He Tao also successively falsely issued 303 input VAT invoices with a tax amount of RMB 40,456,886.03 for the purpose of offsetting the tax and covering up the fact of issuing output invoices.

The Supreme People's Court reviewed and held that the defendant He Tao, together with others, had falsely issued VAT invoices for others and himself in the absence of the purchase and sale of goods, and his behavior had constituted the crime of falsely issuing VAT invoices. The tax paid to the State by the company controlled by He Tao in the process of false invoicing, amounting to RMB 674,623.66, should be deducted from the loss caused to the national interest, and the loss caused by He Tao to the national interest should be RMB 498,297.62 (RMB 5,657,599.86 - RMB 674,623.66).

Two issues can be clarified from this case:

1. The company controlled by He Tao and others accepted both the false invoicing and external false invoicing, and should determine the amount of the loss caused to the state tax by the output tax amount of the external VAT invoices issued. According to the principle of value-added tax calculation, only when taxable sales behavior occurs will the value-added tax obligation arise. If the company controlled by He Tao and others did not engage in taxable acts but only issued VAT special invoices to the outside world, it did not generate VAT tax obligations. Under this premise, the company controlled by He Tao and others obtains input VAT special invoices for offsetting output tax, that is, for offsetting output tax which originally has no VAT tax obligation, and it will not result in loss of state tax. Therefore, in the case of both accepting false invoicing and external false invoicing, the amount of national tax loss depends on the amount of output tax generated by external VAT invoices.

2. The value-added tax (i.e., output tax - input tax) already paid by the company controlled by He Tao and others for both accepting false invoicing and external false invoicing should be deducted from the amount of tax loss caused to the state. The amount of tax loss caused to the State should be considered in terms of substance, focusing on the amount of tax loss that actually did cause to the State. The company controlled by He Tao and others did not incur VAT obligations as no taxable behavior occurred, therefore, the VAT paid to the State for the purpose of false invoicing should be deducted from the amount of tax deduction actually caused by the invoices issued to the outside world.

(IV) Dependent invoicing and truthful invoicing do not constitute false invoicing

The Reply Letter of the Research Office of the Supreme People's Court ("Reply Letter on How to Determine the Nature of the Act of Implementing Business Activities in the Name of a Relevant Company by "Dependent" on the Company and Letting the Relevant Company Falsely Issue VAT Special Purpose Invoices on Its Own Behalf") (Law Research [2015] No. 58) has made two points:

1. Where the dependent party actually sells goods to the invoiced party in the form of dependency, and the dependent party issues VAT invoices to the invoiced party, it does not fall into the category of "falsely issuing VAT invoices" as stipulated in Article 205 of the Criminal Law.

2.If the perpetrator uses the name of another person to engage in business activities and issues VAT special invoices in the name of another person, even if there is no dependent relationship between the perpetrator and the other person, but if the perpetrator carries out actual business activities, does not have the intention of cheating tax deduction subjectively, and objectively does not cause loss of VAT payment of the state, it is not appropriate to recognize it as "falsely issuing VAT special invoices" stipulated in Article 205 of the Criminal Law. "Fraudulent Issuance of VAT Special Invoice"; if the conditions for the constitution of other crimes such as tax evasion are met, other crimes can be dealt with.

Although LRC [2015] No. 58 is not a judicial interpretation and is not legally binding on the court's trial work, it can be used as a reference for the court's trial of the case of false VAT invoices, and in practice, there are many courts that directly cite it in their judgments. It can be seen that LRC [2015] No. 58 is of non-negligible significance to the trial and defense of the case of false VAT invoices.

(V) Behavior, the result of no causal relationship

In recent years, along with the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration of Taxation, the General Administration of Customs and the Central Bank of China, the four ministries and commissions have continued to push forward the special action of combating the illegal and criminal offense of false invoicing and tax fraud, and the number of false invoicing crime cases has surged, among which there is no lack of cases of public officials of tax authorities being involved in false invoicing. The crime of false invoicing of VAT presents a strong complexity in judicial practice, and the cross application of tax law and criminal law is highly specialized and controversial, while the participation of public officials of tax authorities in false invoicing cases involves difficult issues such as crime and non-crime, this crime and the other, and the determination of several crimes, which further highlights the extremely high law enforcement risk of public officials of tax authorities.

In our opinion, public officials who have committed acts of abuse of power or dereliction of duty may constitute the crime of dereliction of duty, but they should not be treated as accomplices in the crime of false invoicing. Tax public officials, as staff members of state organs, violating statutory procedures, abusing the power of approval or failing to conduct on-site investigation to handle the approval of general taxpayer qualification and the approval of VAT invoicing limit constitute malpractice in office, but the above acts do not necessarily result in the loss of state tax money. The loss of national tax is caused by the criminal act of false VAT invoicing committed by the perpetrator of the false invoicing, and if the public official is always unaware of the act of false invoicing before the occurrence of the crime, the loss of national tax does not have a direct causal relationship in the sense of criminal law with his act of dereliction of duty, and according to the principle of appropriateness of crime and responsibility, the huge loss of national tax should not be recognized as the economic loss caused by the act of dereliction of duty.

However, the behavior of the public official has caused a bad social impact on the reputation of the country and the image of the tax authorities, and according to Article 1 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law to the Handling of Criminal Cases of Malfeasance in Duty (I) (Legal Interpretation [2012] No. 18), the abuse of power or negligence of duty that causes a bad social impact is likewise a case of " Causing public property, the state and people's interests to suffer significant losses", so public officials may still constitute the crime of dereliction of duty.

III.Three steps" to effectively prevent the criminal risk of false opening in the coal industry

(I) Improve the business process and strictly implement it, pay attention to the contract, pound signs and other original materials retained

Whether in the purchase and sale of coal or transportation links, coal enterprises should complete the business process, focus on business approval, to avoid the illegal behavior of specific personnel involved in the enterprise. In specific business, focus on the retention of written contracts, pay attention to whether the contract signatory is an authorized representative of the other company, check whether the contract seal is real, and avoid framework contracts.

When purchasing coal or accepting transportation services, pay special attention to whether the seller is dependent on the phenomenon, timely check whether there is inconsistency in the three streams of the situation, if there are instructions for delivery, advances on behalf of the payment of such acts, the other party must be retained in the description of the documents, the other party's dependency agreement, etc., in order to prove the authenticity of their own business.

In the design of contract terms, it is necessary to make a clear agreement on the type of invoicing, project, tax rate, invoicing time, the main body of tax liability, out-of-the-price costs, liability for breach of contract and other tax-related terms. Relevant contracts, invoices, transportation documents, remittance statements and any other transaction-related information and evidence need to be kept after the transaction is completed.

(II) Formulate a perfect tax management system and invoice management system

Coal enterprises should establish a perfect management system for VAT, EIT and minor taxes as well as a voucher management system for VAT invoices and other vouchers based on the authenticity of the business. The specifics include:

1. Establishing an enterprise invoice management database for all tax types, entering all invoice information into the database through the upgrading of technology and equipment, and matching and verifying with the enterprise's inventory, financial and other data, so as to provide comprehensive invoice information for the decision-making level of the enterprise as well as the personnel of relevant positions;

2.Establish the tax-related information database of upstream and downstream enterprises, have a comprehensive grasp of the creditworthiness of upstream and downstream enterprises, and actively obtain the invoice data of the relevant enterprises, so as to ensure that the transactions with upstream and downstream are real and effective, and the invoice information is accurate;

3. Entering paper invoices and vouchers into the data system for preservation through OCR and other technical means, realizing automatic archiving and verification, and facilitating access by the financial department.

(III) Emphasize tax inspection and public security investigation to avoid the transformation of administrative responsibility to criminal responsibility

The source of tax-related criminal cases in the coal industry occupies a significant proportion of tax authorities' referrals. Therefore, if an enterprise is audited by the tax authorities due to the invoice problem, the conclusion of the tax audit often determines the direction of the case, and if the tax audit finds that there is an administrative violation in the case, then it is very likely that the case will be transferred to the judicial authorities due to the suspicion of a crime, and at this time, the relevant enterprises and personnel will face great criminal risks. Coal enterprises should attach great importance to the response to the tax audit procedure, especially when the tax authorities have already made the characterization of the case of false opening and tax fraud, the enterprises should be more vigilant, and should move the communication and risk resolution port forward, and intervene through professional tax lawyers in the audit procedure, and communicate with the tax authorities positively and effectively, so as to maximize the risk of resolving the risks in the administrative procedure, and to avoid assuming the criminal liabilities.

Once the audit procedure is not properly handled, or the public security organs directly intervene, the coal enterprise and its responsible personnel will face the initiation of criminal case procedure. Enterprises should grasp the "golden period" of investigation, comprehensively sort out the financial and business information of the business involved in the case and provide it to the public security organs, and separately collect the materials that can prove the authenticity of the transaction and attach sufficient explanations. However, in the stage of investigation, coal enterprises should also beware of the risk of criminal liability for perjury and obstruction of testimony, accurately delineate the boundaries of criminal investigation counseling and illegal collusion, and timely hire professional tax lawyers to intervene in response to the investigation and sorting out the case materials in order to accurately and truthfully reflect the facts of the entire case to avoid bias in the overall characterization of the case by the public security authorities as well as the judicial authorities to prevent the proliferation of the risk of criminal liability.