VAT fraud remains a major source of budgetary resources

During an election period, the fight against fraud is often the magic ingredient that makes it possible to complete the financing of programs. The candidate Les Républicains (LR) Valérie Pécresse promised to recover 15 billion euros by tightening controls, as much as Marine Le Pen, who wanted, in addition, to devote a new ministry to her, while Emmanuel Macron cited the fight against the fraud as one of the instruments for obtaining savings of the same magnitude. Figures at the time deemed optimistic by specialists, fraud, including tax, remaining very difficult to assess.

This is one of the conclusions of the information report published by the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, October 26. Nineteen senators from all political currents examined the results of the law of October 23, 2018 on the fight against tax evasion, making twenty recommendations. This text, adopted at the time after the revelation of a series of scandals, from the “Panama Papers” to the “SwissLeaks”, aimed to better detect and punish fraud, with in particular the creation of a new “tax police”, placed under the supervision of Bercy. The law also put an end to the famous “lock” which reserved to the tax authorities the right to initiate proceedings in matters of tax evasion.

Also read the archive (2019): Article reserved for our subscribers For ten years, the fight against fraud and tax evasion has made spectacular progress

The report of the Senate draws up a rather favorable assessment of the law, nevertheless proposing some adjustments. The absence of an assessment of fraud thus remains one of the most problematic points. While tax audits have produced increased revenue since 2018 (+38% despite the health crisis, to 10.6 billion euros in 2021), thanks in particular to the increased use of artificial intelligence and the conclusion of a few tax cases such as that of Google, its effectiveness remains difficult to measure.

The figures for tax evasion indeed vary from one to three, the Solidaires-Public Finances union providing the highest assessment, between 80 and 100 billion euros, an amount disputed each year by Bercy. “A question remains unanswered, underlines the report of the Senate. Does the tax administration manage to recover 10%, 20% or 50% of the amounts defrauded? »

Complex and hard-to-detect patterns

Unlike many of its neighbours, France does not have a tool to assess tax evasion – “the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Denmark, the Country-Countries or even Australia have such assessments, which are based on random and/or targeted checks”recalls the report, which calls for the annual publication of data by Insee and the tax authorities, by 2024. “We are going to propose an amendment to the 2023 draft budget to follow up on this recommendation”specifies Jean-François Husson, the general rapporteur of the budget in the Senate.

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