In 2020, 3,546 total tax evaders were discovered, exercising business or self-employment activities completely unknown to the financial administration (many of them operating through electronic commerce platforms) and 19,209 illegal or irregular workers. Targeted and selective interventions, based on the intersection of fiscal and police databases, on the economic control of the territory and on the results of the judicial and currency police investigations. It is only part of the strategy adopted by the Guardia di Finanza since the beginning of the pandemic to stem the phenomena of tax illegality and protect the legal economy from competition from tax fraudsters.
In addition, 9,833 investigations by the judicial police were carried out, which led to the denunciation of 10,264 subjects, of which 308 were arrested, for having committed 7,303 tax crimes. The value of the assets seized for crimes relating to direct taxes and VAT is 800 million euros, while the seizure proposals still under consideration by the judicial authorities amount to 4.4 billion euros. 921 cases of international tax evasion have been discovered, mainly attributable to hidden permanent establishments, manipulation of transfer prices, the fictitious location abroad of the fiscal residence of natural and legal persons and the illegal holding of capital across borders.
On the other hand, the interventions carried out in the field of excise duties amounted to 1,675, also to protect the fuel market. Seized 4 thousand tons of energy products and found 90 thousand tons consumed in fraud. In contrasting customs offenses, 40 thousand interventions were carried out aimed at reconstructing the distribution chain of goods illegally introduced on the national territory, with particular attention to personal protective equipment and other goods used to deal with the pandemic. Smuggling of foreign manufactured tobacco is on the rise with 346 tons of illegal cigarettes seized, 1,700 subjects reported and 230 arrested.