- Of the 6,415 million revenues obtained, 76.9% corresponds to direct collection from control actions

- Inspection actions grew by 10.4%, verification of VAT declarations by 47.3% and income from debt collection management through executive means grew by 19.9%

- The AEAT maintains a special program of 12,000 face-to-face actions to combat the underground economy

 

The general director of the Tax Agency, Beatriz Viana, today presented the progress up to the month of July of the results of the prevention and fight against fraud actions. In the first seven months of 2012, the budgeted figure has been exceeded by 25% to reach 5,838 million euros. The total collection linked to the fight against fraud, which in addition to the previous income includes those derived from late declarations and tax crime files, has reached 6,415 million euros, 15.3% more than in the same period of 2011 .
More than three quarters of the global figure, 4,933 million euros, corresponds to the direct collection generated by control actions, which increases by 33.7% compared to the figures obtained between January and July of last year. This improvement means earning 1,240 million euros more for this concept than in the same period last year.
Of these 4,933 million euros collected as income from control actions, 27.5% derive from actions by the Central Delegation of Large Taxpayers.
In the same period, income from refund reductions of 905 million euros has been recorded, 12.2% less than between January and July 2011. The main reason for this decrease is the parallel decrease that has occurred in the amount of refund requests submitted by taxpayers.

Reinforcement of actions
These results achieved until July in the fight against fraud are accompanied by a reinforcement of inspection activity, an area in which that from January to July actions have increased by 10.4% compared to the same period in 2011.
However, the Tax Agency has also considered it necessary to reinforce those control actions that it carries out on a more extensive basis. In this area, actions grew by 27.8%, especially highlighting the verification of VAT declarations, which increased by 47.3%.
In parallel, the Tax Agency has managed to significantly improve its capacity to enter previously settled debts. Between January and July, collection actions in the executive phase with income have translated into more than 3,600 million euros, with a growth of 19.9% on the figures obtained until July of last year.
At the same time, and in accordance with the provisions of the 2012 Tax Control Plan Guidelines, the Agency has carried out inspection actions taking advantage of new sources of information. At the international level, and by virtue of the conventions and agreements for the exchange of information signed with countries that are no longer considered tax havens (Andorra, Panama and the Bahamas, among others), information requirements have been made with respect to 142 companies and 239 individuals.
In turn, since this September the Tax Agency has been collecting information on safe deposit box holders, for which it has already sent requests to 51 financial entities.
Along with these information gathering actions, the Tax Agency begins to obtain results from the exploitation of data on electricity consumption, the analysis of which has led to the initiation of 4,500 investigation actions on rental properties. In some geographical areas the Tax Agency has detected that 75% of these leases were not being declared.
The information on electricity consumption has also led to more than 750 visits to homes that are declared as habitual residences and that could actually be second homes. In this case, the inspection has detected fiscal risk in 70% of the cases analyzed.

Special plan against the underground economy
The economic context has also led the Tax Agency to the decision to establish a special plan against the underground economy. Since last spring, the Agency has been developing a program with more than 12,000 in-person actions in sectors or areas of socioeconomic relevance, which will continue in the coming months.
To date, the Tax Agency has already collected information on more than 5,700 actions and, in about 37% of the cases, it has detected situations that it considers tax risk, which will result in additional actions. The objective of this plan is twofold: discourage the use of tax avoidance practices established for years in certain sectors and activities, and promote citizen tax awareness.