Tax fraud: how the government wants to hunt down the rich

The fight against tax fraud has allowed Bercy to recover an average of 9 billion euros per year between 2017 and 2021, a total of 45 billion euros over the first five-year term of Emmanuel Macron. And €14.6 billion in recovery was notified by the Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFiP). A balance sheet that Gabriel Attal, Minister in charge of Public Accounts, intends to further improve.

As part of a vast anti-fraud plan, the objective is to increase the number of tax audits of individuals by 25% by the end of the five-year period, with an emphasis on the largest assets.

Read alsoGabriel Attal: "In 2022, the recovery of tax fraud broke a record with 14.6 billion euros"

"I want to focus the effort on the ultra-rich, the multinationals, but also relieve the pressure on the middle classes, small bosses, owners of SMEs to give them some oxygen," said Gabriel Attal on France Inter, this Tuesday morning.

An evaluation board

While estimates on the real dimension of tax fraud diverge by tens of billions, Gabriel Attal announced the establishment of a national evaluation council that he will chair. "It will be composed of qualified personalities, independent experts and parliamentarians," says Bercy. And its mission will be to establish credible and shared assessments. »

From 2025, avoided tax evasion will be assessed by the DGFiP and an annual target proposed to Parliament.

An intelligence unit

Bercy will set up a new tax intelligence service dedicated to the fight against major international fraud. Staffed by a hundred elite agents, it will be integrated into the National Directorate of Intelligence and Customs Investigations (DNRED), already responsible for implementing the policy of intelligence, control and the fight against fraud in customs matters.

Their mission? Track down the most serious and complex tax fraud: the concealment of assets abroad in tax havens and opaque entities such as trusts, the use of tax exemption firms and the abusive optimization of large multinationals. In particular, they will exploit information disclosed by whistleblowers.

"In the context of the Panama Papers, for example, we had a lot of data, but sometimes of limited quality that required in-depth investigations," notes Bercy. In the end, some 200 people were identified as subject to tax in France resulting in an adjustment of €180 million. »

Additional human and technical resources

Some 1,500 full-time equivalents will be mobilized by the end of the five-year period as part of the fight against tax fraud: recruitments to replace retirements, many at the DGFiP in the coming years, but also redeployments of staff within the tax administration.

Emphasis will also be placed on the exploitation of data. "The use of datamining for the programming of tax audits of individuals will be raised to the same level as for companies, i.e. 50% of the programming of controls and 100,000 files of natural persons processed by 2027," says Bercy.

Tougher sanctions

The arsenal to punish the biggest tax evaders could also be expanded. The government wants to introduce an additional sentence of community service (TIG) for people convicted of tax evasion even without prison sentence. In the 2024 finance bill should also include a provision creating "a penalty of fiscal indignity, which would temporarily deprive people convicted of serious breaches of their tax obligations, the right to receive tax reductions and tax credits," says Bercy.

Finally, a specific offence of incitement to tax fraud will be created to punish the marketing of legal and financial tools intended to conceal income or assets or the simple provision of "fraud kits" via social networks.

At the same time, the tax authorities intend to relieve pressure on small taxpayers by generalizing proactive regularization on low-stakes anomalies and identified omissions and errors.