The recovered resources represent approximately 1% of Spain's Gross Domestic Product.

 
The Vice President of the Government for Economic Affairs and Acting Minister of Economy and Finance, Elena Salgado; the Secretary of State for Finance and Budgets, Juan Manuel López Carbajo; and the Director General of the Tax Agency, José María Meseguer, have today presented the progress of the results of the actions to prevent and combat fraud for 2011, which will result in a recovery of income for the public coffers of 10.4 billion euros, 3.6% more than in 2010 and a figure equivalent to approximately 1% of the national GDP.

In total, 55.833 billion euros have been recovered since 2005 as a result of the fight against fraud. More than half of these, 28.562 billion euros, have been collected over the last three years, in which the economic crisis has caused a sharp fall in tax revenue. The financial and debt crisis has led to a lack of liquidity, which has led to increased debt deferrals for taxpayers. The efforts made by the Tax Agency to recover revenues are therefore particularly relevant, thanks to the effective long-term planning carried out in recent years, which has yielded historic results in adverse circumstances.

In 2011, direct revenue from control actions, including the reduction of refunds, amounted to 9.4 billion euros, 10.6% more than in 2010. The amount collected through voluntary adjustments, attributable to the induced effect, fell by 35% to 1 billion euros.

FOCUS ON THE MOST SERIOUS FRAUD

The long-term planning and emphasis on the more complex forms and largest sums as part of fraud investigations are the main reason for the increase in revenue from the prevention and fight against fraud in recent years.  In 2011, the average debt per taxpayer inspected amounted to 221,000 euros.

The number of tax crime cases referred to the public prosecutor's office totalled 783 by 30 November 2011, while the total amount of tax fraud in the same period amounted to 846 million euros. In 2011 as a whole, 938 cases were submitted for a total amount of 696 million euros.

GUARANTEES FOR THE COLLECTION OF TAX DEBT

As of November 30, the number of actions to ensure debt collection continued to grow, reaching 2,098, compared to 2,017 last year. These actions are carried out in a coordinated manner between the Inspection, Customs and Collection departments in order to prevent the depletion of assets by fraudsters.

FACILITIES FOR THE TAXPAYER

The number of deferrals also increased until November, reaching more than 1.5 million applications, for an amount of more than 14.4 billion euros. In 2010, 1.4 million applications were registered for a value of 13.9 billion euros.

Among the new tax assistance features implemented in 2011 is the possibility of making payments by telephone in cases of tax debts of individuals, which began operating on December 1.

A service for downloading draft personal income tax returns online without an electronic certificate, known as RENO (which has been used by more than six and a half million taxpayers), has also been launched, as well as mandatory electronic notification for legal entities and the expansion of the content of assistance from the Telephone Assistance Centre (901 200 345) with the addition of subjects from the Revenue Department.