The Tax Agency has a basic function for the correct functioning of public services in the broadest sense of the word. The importance of the objectives assigned to it requires that the Tax Agency have a dynamic character in its organization and operation.

Therefore, always within the necessary stability of its general organizational framework, changes are periodically introduced in the structure, such as those made by the Resolution of January 13, 2021 on the organization and attributions of functions in the Customs and Excise Area, in relation to the National Customs and Excise Investigation Office.

It is true that this is not an absolute novelty or a departure from the previous scheme, in which a National Inspection and Investigation Office already existed in the organisational rules of the Customs and Excise Department, but it does imply certain changes in the interest of greater effectiveness and efficiency in the daily activities of its activities.

In this regard, although it may seem like a minor change, it is worth highlighting the direct dependence of the Office of the Director of the Department of Customs and Excise. The purpose of this article is to highlight the Office's focus on fraud investigation and control in all aspects of the Special Tax Customs Area, thus overcoming its traditional connection to the inspection function.

But without a doubt the essential objective of the organizational change is the search for a greater specialization of the Office's activity in terms of investigation work in those sectors that are more prone to fraud or in which this reaches greater doses of seriousness and complexity. In particular, the investigation of fraud with criminal relevance must constitute one of the backbones of all its activity.

Furthermore, it cannot be forgotten that, in addition to its ex lege obligation to ensure the correct application of the tax and customs system, the Tax Agency and more specifically within it the Customs and Excise Department, assumes an obligation to the European Union to protect its financial interests at least to the same extent as national taxes, derived directly from the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

In this context, there is great concern within the European Union about the criminal dimension of fraud against its financial interests, and the Directive on combating fraud affecting the Union's financial interests through criminal law and the Regulation establishing the European Public Prosecutor's Office are good examples of this. To this extent, the investigation of frauds with criminal relevance and the specialisation underlying the powers assigned to the National Office for Customs and Excise Investigation is in line with current European trends, without forgetting the investigation in sectors traditionally affected by high levels of organised fraud in the field of Excise Taxes or, more recently, in Environmental Taxes.

Other relevant functions assigned to the Office are those related to the collection of information in a broad sense, those related to international mutual assistance in the part relating to taxes under the jurisdiction of the Customs and Excise Department and the possibility, in specific cases, of directly carrying out tax verification and liquidation actions.