3.3. Results obtained in accordance with other indicators established in previous years' Target Plans

The Objective Plans prior to 2018 included indicators referring to the results derived from fraud prevention and control actions. Under this name, the collection results of the Tax Agency's actions to combat fraud are measured.

However, these indicators offer a measurement of the Agency's control activities based on a cash criterion (settlements collected regardless of the year in which the settlement was carried out, fees collected that had been reported in the year or in previous years, late settlements entered, as well as denial of requested refunds).

Furthermore, the objective of maximizing the results indicators of the fight against fraud may not be completely aligned with one of the basic functions entrusted to the Tax Agency, such as increasing voluntary collection. Although legislative measures have been adopted to increase self-assessed and deposited amounts (e.g. limitation of financial expenses, obligation to declare assets abroad, investment of the taxable person in VAT in real estate transfers...), their effectiveness would be limited if the behavior of the Tax Agency were subsequently passive.

Likewise, the indicators of results in the fight against fraud only reflect a part of the effects of the Tax Agency's activity, with a temporal vision reduced to a specific year.

All these issues and the greater orientation aimed at assistance and fraud prevention actions make it advisable to measure the results of the Tax Agency using an indicator such as net collection, which includes not only the income from the settlements carried out but also the self-assessed income by taxpayers, for whom the role of the Tax Agency is of extraordinary importance.

Without prejudice to the foregoing, information is offered on the results obtained in 2020 in accordance with the anti-fraud results indicators included in the Objective Plans for years prior to 2018.

The collection results in the prevention and fight against fraud of the Tax Agency reach a total amount of 17,274 million euros in 2020, which represents an increase of 9.93% compared to the previous year. These results include extraordinary files of reduction of installment payments for an amount of 4,487 million that will be difficult to repeat in other years.

In relation with this result, the Efficiency Index measures the amount obtained through these actions in the fight against fraud for each euro spent in the Agency. To calculate it, the following magnitudes are used:

The numerator includes, in millions of euros, the amount obtained through the fight against tax and customs fraud.
The denominator includes, in millions of euros, the amount of the annual budget of the Tax Agency, in terms of recognised obligations. It includes the cost of all the functions performed by the Tax Agency, since they all contribute to the fulfilment of its mission of ensuring the correct application of the State's tax and customs system.

According to the efficiency index, in 2020, for every euro spent in the Agency, 11.52 euros have been collected in the fight against fraud, a figure slightly higher than the previous year, although it is a level conditioned by the amount of the installment payments indicated above, as is the case with the performance index shown in table 9.

Data and graphs related to this issue are found in Annex Table 16. Efficiency index . New window

The total amount is made up of two parts: “Results of the prevention and control of tax and customs fraud” for which 16,597 million euros have been obtained in 2020 and “Other results of the prevention and control of tax and customs fraud” with a result in this same period of 677 millions of euros.