On social networks, certain proposals offer you good deals, intended to defraud the tax authorities by inventing expenses giving rise to tax credits. These are obviously scams, which can cost you dearly! The tax authorities have just issued an alert on the subject.
Good tax deals. With the opening of the 2024 income tax season, the keyword is likely to make a comeback on social networks. The Internet is indeed full of tempting offers, promising not only to save on the amount of your income tax, but also to earn money by abusing tax credit schemes.
Reminder: these allow you to recover part of the expenses incurred, for example, for childcare. On social networks, some fraudsters offer to explain to you how to declare false expenses, or inflate real ones, to inflate your reimbursement. Some will even ask you to give them your tax number and passwords to set up the fraud for you.
This is obviously a very dangerous game. Declaring fictitious or erroneous expenses to the tax authorities to obtain a tax credit or allowing a third party to do so for you is a offense which exposes criminal prosecution for fraud or false declaration, explains the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP), which is keeping an eye on things. In 2023, its agents successfully avoided 182 million euros in undue payments of tax credits by thwarting fraud attempts at the source.
To face these threats, public authorities have recently strengthened their repressive arsenal. The 2024 finance law created a crime of incitement to tax evasion, in order to punish the provision of fraud schemes online, on the internet and social networks, and to sanction people who market legal and financial tools intended to conceal income or assets, recalls the DGFiP. It also recently set up a national unit dedicated to coordinating repression.
Taxes: the good and bad surprises of your 2024 declaration