The press revelations contained in the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers relating to offshore investments have enabled the French tax authorities to collect nearly 200 million euros, AFP learned on Monday from the Minister of the Economy.
By adding regularization and control, the results of the operations carried out by the General Directorate of Public Finance (DGFiP) in connection with the Panama Papers amount to 176.7 million euros for 198 files, according to an internal document obtained from the DGFiP, under the authority of the Ministers of Economy Bruno Le Maire and Public Accounts Gabriel Attal.
The Bercy tax authorities specify that these figures are not final, the majority of files remaining blocked by the absence of a complete response to requests for international administrative assistance.
In April 2016, revelations by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) uncovered more than 11.5 million confidential documents from the Panamanian business law firm Mossack Fonseca.
In November 2017 and February 2018, the ICIJ then published the Paradise Papers, based on confidential documents from the Appleby cabinet. These revelations have so far enabled the DGFiP to collect 11.2 million euros for 35 files, according to the same source.
Concerning the Pandora Papers and the case of money laundering via Duba Uncovered real estate, the revelations of which are more recent, the DGFiP claims that it does not yet have sufficient hindsight to quantify the issues of the proceedings initiated on the basis of the information revealed by these investigations .
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The administration adds that complaints to the tax police have nevertheless been filed, particularly in the context of investigations related to Duba.
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office last week gave French taxpayers until April 30 until 30 April who had used the Helin company to come forward, failing which it will initiate criminal proceedings against them.
This company based in the United Arab Emirates is suspected of being at the heart of a vast system of tax evasion which has been operating since the beginning of the 2000s and was revealed by Obs and Radio France in 2018.
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