Operation 'Mortar'

• More than 300 Agency officials attended yesterday at 71 locations located in 14 Autonomous Communities after detecting external signs of unjustified wealth and abnormally low economic ratios in the selected companies.
• The operation has led to the beginning of inspection actions in relation to 74 companies and 25 related individuals.
• The actions are included in a comprehensive control plan for the construction sector that also includes sending warning letters to other companies and carrying out visits from the Inspection Area.

April 27, 2023 .- Yesterday, the Tax Agency began a coordinated operation in 14 Autonomous Communities against tax fraud in the sector of the sale of construction materials. The operation, called 'Argamasa', entails the initiation of inspection checks on 74 companies and 25 related individuals (partners, administrators and people in the family environment), through the presence of more than 300 Agency officials in a total of 71 premises. .

The device deployed reaches premises located in Andalusia (8), Aragon (4), Asturias (5), Balearic Islands (3), Canary Islands (4), Cantabria (1), Castilla-La Mancha (1), Castilla y León ( 6), Catalonia (11), Extremadura (2), Galicia (8), Madrid (9), Murcia (1) and Valencian Community (8).

The 'Argamasa' operation has been coordinated by the Inspection Department of the Tax Agency, with the participation of more than 280 officials from the Inspection Area, including personnel from the Computer Audit Units, and more than twenty officials from the Service Customs Surveillance Agency, as well as with the support of police agents.

A series of signs of the existence of an underground economy, added to the evolution experienced in recent years in the field of construction and renovations, have led to setting this sector as the objective of this operation.

Margins significantly lower than those of its sector

The companies affected by the 'Argamasa' operation are, fundamentally, companies dedicated to the sale of construction materials. The turnover of these companies has increased in recent years, reaching an amount close to 280 million euros in 2021, although they show net margins that are significantly lower than those of their sector as a whole.

Beyond the scope of small businesses, which is not the object of this operation, the construction materials sales sector has special characteristics in terms of its economic functioning. This is a sector with little use of payment through cards (card payment represents less than 8% of turnover).

Although this does not necessarily imply an intensive use of cash, given that it is a sector with a large volume of commercial operations with other entrepreneurs, this particularity of the limited use of card payments, added to the also scarce deposits of cash in accounts ( less than 6% of turnover) deserve special attention and a more exhaustive examination of the correct declaration of income.

External signs of wealth

Another element that has been considered for the selection of these companies is the fact that various cases of external signs of wealth have been found in the natural persons associated with these companies that could constitute indications of income concealment, such as renting cash boxes. security and the use of high-value personal cards.

With appearances such as those carried out in the selected premises, the Agency is able to directly access the documentation and real existing accounting or auxiliary information, including the computer information processing systems, in order to confirm and quantify the volume of activity not declared by the companies. In some of the interviews carried out yesterday, the existence and use of 'software' to hide sales or 'dual use' has already been detected. The inspections, which will be carried out in the coming months from this initial evidence collection, will analyze all the documentation obtained.

Impersonations as a tool to combat tax fraud

The experience of operations carried out previously shows that the presence of the Administration in the premises or homes where the economic activity is carried out, or where the management of the business is carried out, allows a more effective fight against the underground economy or any another non-compliance susceptible to regularization.

The Guidelines of the 2023 Control Plan emphasize the need to reinforce the inspection presence in the headquarters where economic activity is carried out effectively to reduce irregularities of a purely formal nature, stating that the need to achieve an improvement in the behavior of non-compliant taxpayers will determine that actions can be coordinated at the national level.

In particular, the Guidelines establish that the Tax Agency will maintain, throughout this year, a presence in those sectors and business models in which there is a high risk of the existence of an underground economy, and the assumption of the transportation sector is mentioned in particular. construction and renovations, an area in which the present operation is being accompanied by 'notice letters' to other companies, informing of the convenience of reviewing their declared economic and tax magnitudes, as well as visits ('fiscal inspections') for the on-site control of formal and registration obligations.

Sectoral macro-operations

With the 'Argamasa' operation there are now 22 coordinated sectoral macro-operations deployed by the Agency in the last decade. These types of actions, in addition to facilitating the detection and regularization of tax fraud, allow a dissuasive message to be transmitted to the groups involved in these practices, which have an impact on public coffers and seriously distort competition in the affected sector itself.