- Of the 6.415 million in revenue 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 Director General of the Tax Agency, Beatriz Viana, has today presented the progress up to July of the results of the actions to prevent and combat fraud. In the first seven months of 2012, the budget figure was exceeded by 25%, reaching 5.838 billion euros. Total revenue from the fight against fraud, which in addition to the above revenues includes revenue from late tax returns and tax crime cases, has reached 6.415 billion euros, 15.3% more than in the same period in 2011.
More than three quarters of the total figure, 4.933 billion euros, corresponds to the direct revenue generated by control actions, which increased by 33.7% compared to the figures obtained between January and July of last year. This improvement means 1.24 billion euros more in revenue from this concept than in the same period last year.
Of these 4.933 million euros collected in revenue from control actions, 27.5% derive from actions by the Central Delegation of Large Taxpayers.
In the same period, income from reduced returns amounted to 905 million euros, 12.2% less than between January and July 2011. The main reason for this decline is the parallel decrease in the amount of refund requests submitted by taxpayers.

Strengthening of actions
These results achieved up to July in the fight against fraud are accompanied by a reinforcement of inspection activity, an area in which actions have increased by 10.4% from January to July 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%.
At the same time, the Tax Agency has managed to significantly improve its capacity to collect previously settled debts. Between January and July, tax collection activities in the executive phase with income have resulted in more than 3.6 billion euros, with a growth of 19.9% over the figures obtained up to July of last year.
At the same time, and in accordance with the provisions of the Tax Control Plan Guidelines for 2012, the Agency has carried out inspection activities using new sources of information. At the international level, and pursuant to agreements and conventions on the exchange of information signed with countries that are no longer considered tax havens (Andorra, Panama and the Bahamas, among others), requests for information have been made with respect to 142 companies and 239 individuals.
In turn, since September the Tax Agency has been collecting information on safe deposit box owners, for which it has already sent requests to 51 financial institutions.
In addition to these information gathering activities, the Tax Agency is beginning to obtain results from the exploitation of data on electricity consumption, the analysis of which has led to the initiation of 4,500 investigations into rental properties. In some geographical areas, the Tax Agency has detected that 75% of these leases were not being declared.
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 tax risk in 70% of the cases analysed.

Special plan to combat the black economy
The economic context has also led the Tax Agency to the decision to establish a special plan to combat the black economy. Since last spring, the Agency has been developing a programme with more than 12,000 face-to-face 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 around 37% of cases, it has detected situations that it considers to be tax risks, which will result in additional actions. The objective of this plan is twofold: discouraging the use of tax avoidance practices that have been established for years in certain sectors and activities, and promoting citizen tax awareness.