Operation 'Packing'

• More than 195 Agency officials have initiated inspections after discovering fraudulent sales operations.

• The operation involves the beginning of inspection checks in relation to 37 companies and 15 related individuals.

• The actions stem from previous investigations in which the use of software to conceal sales was confirmed.

March 12, 2025.- The Tax Agency has launched a coordinated operation today in nine autonomous communities against a tax fraud scheme in the packaging and packing industry.

The operation, called 'Packaging', involves the start of inspection checks on 37 companies and 15 related individuals (partners, directors and people in their family circle), through the presence of more than 195 Agency officials in 43 premises located in Andalusia (9), Asturias (1), Castilla-La Mancha (12), Castilla y León (2), Catalonia (2), Extremadura (2), Madrid (2), Murcia (3) and the Valencian Community (10).

Operation "Packing" was coordinated by the Tax Agency's Inspection Department, with the participation of more than 155 officials from the Inspection Area, including personnel from the Computer Audit Units, and more than 40 officials from the Customs Surveillance Service.

The origin of the research

The investigation began with an inspection conducted on a company in the sector, a distributor of plastic packaging and materials, for which a tax complaint filed with the Tax Agency was particularly useful.

Within the framework of this audit, in addition to tax irregularities at the inspected company itself, the Inspection Department detected undeclared purchases and sales within, essentially, a series of manufacturing companies in the packaging industry that supplied materials to the distributor.

The progress of these investigations led to the discovery of a network of fraudulent sales transactions involving various companies across the country, which also apparently used "dual-use software" to conceal these purchases and sales of materials.

As a result of all these previous actions, the Tax Agency has launched this operation, focusing on the companies in the network and with the possibility of extending its actions depending on the outcome of the inspections now underway.

Within the group of companies selected as targets for this operation, a study has also been conducted of partners who may show external signs of wealth not justified by their declared activities. This could be due to an emergence of hidden sales by the entity that were materializing in increases in the equity of the partners.

Tax fraud and unfair competition

The packaging industry in Spain encompasses a wide range of subsectors, led by the manufacturing of packaging and plastic materials. This sector has experienced significant growth, reaching record-high turnover in recent years. The detection of fraud schemes, in addition to leading to the appropriate tax adjustments, also allows us to combat unfair competition from a limited number of companies in a sector comprised of more than 3,400 companies.

Through these types of coordinated actions carried out at selected locations, the Agency can access information of vital importance for conducting its inspection work (documentation and accounting or auxiliary information, both on paper and in computerized information processing systems).

The AEAT Control Plan Guidelines also highlight the advisability of carrying out control actions in relation to those taxpayers who report irregular or anomalous changes in their inventory levels that are inconsistent with their declared activity and indicate the possible existence of hidden sales.

The inspections initiated now, and which will continue in the coming months based on this initial evidence collection, will allow for analysis of the documentation obtained in order to rectify all detected non-compliances.

With Operation 'Empaque,' the Agency has now deployed 25 coordinated sectoral macro-operations in just over a decade. These actions, in addition to facilitating the detection and regularisation of tax fraud, make it possible to convey a dissuasive message to the groups involved in these practices, which have an impact on public coffers and seriously distort competition in the affected sector itself.