The Tax Fraud Prevention Plan raised 8.2 billion in 2009
The revenue obtained from the Plan's activities in 2009 increased by 5.9% compared to 2008. Since 2005, more than 35 billion euros have been collected and investigations into the most complex fraud have been stepped up, with an increase in amounts collected for tax crimes of 18%. Actions to ensure debt collection have also increased, thanks to precautionary measures, with an increase in amount of 81%.
The Secretary of State for Finance and Budgets, Carlos Ocaña, and the Director General of the Tax Agency, Luis Pedroche, have today presented the results of the application of the Tax Fraud Prevention Plan for 2009. By the end of November, the Plan had raised 5.9% more revenue than last year linked to the fight against fraud and is expected to close the year with revenues of 8.2 billion euros. In total, in the five years of application of the Tax Fraud Prevention Plan, more than 35 billion euros will be spent on fraud control and prevention actions.
In 2009, direct revenue from control actions up to November, including the reduction in refunds, amounted to 6.217 billion euros, 5.9% more than in the same period in 2008. The revenue from voluntary regularisations, attributable to the induced effect of the Tax Fraud Prevention Plan, fell by 29% to 1,011 million euros, affected by the significant increase in debt deferrals, which reached 45% in these cases.
TAX CRIME AND PLOT INVESTIGATION
Tax crime amounts increased by 18% until November, reaching 630 million euros. In 2009, the average amount of contributions defrauded by crime was one million euros, 34% more than last year.
There has also been a 1.7% increase in the amount of judicial proceedings without administrative proceedings, which are related to complex cases, with sophisticated plots and which immediately lead to crimes both in tax matters and in other economic areas. As of November this year, the amount is 379 million euros.
GUARANTEES FOR THE COLLECTION OF TAX DEBT
On the other hand, in 2009 the number of collection files for liability claims that have been prepared since the start of the inspection work to enforce the collection has increased, reaching 4,937 actions, 9% more than the previous year. Furthermore, the amounts related to these actions amount to 842 million euros to date, 91% more than at the same time last year.
The number of precautionary measures has also increased significantly, both in number (1,549, 18% more) and in value (1,068 million euros, 81% more than in November 2008).
HIGH DENOMINATION BANKNOTES
Investigations into the use of large amounts of cash in high denomination banknotes have focused on operations in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, with a total of 706 million euros up to November 2009. Of these, 331 million are for late declarations, 269 million for unpaid debts and 106 million for reported crimes.
FLEXIBILIZATION IN THE FACE OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS
The Tax Agency has made the granting of tax deferrals more flexible throughout 2009 in order to alleviate the pressure on taxpayers. In this way, in the first half of the year, the minimum amount without guarantees to request deferrals or payment instalments was increased from 6,000 to 18,000 euros. On the other hand, a Royal Decree Law approved the reduction of the legal interest rates on money and late payment interest.
From January to November, the number of applications for deferral was 631,858, 70.8% more than in the same period last year. The amount of applications submitted amounts to 14.137 billion euros, 48.7% more than between January and November 2008. The highest percentage of postponement requests has occurred in VAT, with a growth of 56.3% in number of requests and 86.4% in amount.
TAX HAVENS
Spain is working on signing agreements for the exchange of effective tax information and double taxation agreements with the majority of countries considered tax havens and with those that, without being so, maintain areas of concealment of accounts and assets. In coordination with the international community and working closely within the European Union, it is hoped that most of the agreements will be signed in the first half of 2010. In 2009, agreements have been signed with countries such as Luxembourg, Belgium and Uruguay, and negotiations are at a very advanced stage with others such as Andorra.
FRAUD PREVENTION
The Tax Agency devotes 58% of its resources to the fight against fraud and its most important efforts are directed towards combating the most serious fraud. The average amount of debt per taxpayer inspected by the Inspection Department amounts to 210,000 euros. For every euro that the Tax Agency allocates to resources for the prevention of tax fraud, twelve are collected. This ratio was 6 euros for every euro in 2004.