2023-05-09 20:09:42
Datamining, whistleblowers, publication of tax revenues… Countries around the world are full of inventiveness to stem the scourge of tax evasion.
The French government is not alone in its crusade against tax evasion. While the Minister Delegate for Public Accounts presented his plan on Tuesday to stem this phenomenon, our neighbors in Europe and elsewhere have also strengthened their arsenal in recent years. Because if regulatory projects are multiplying on an international scale, States remain in the front line to track down free riders.
From the United States to Finland, Le Figaro takes stock of the most significant initiatives in the fight against tax evasion.
United States: whistleblowers, datamining … the American arsenal against tax crime
It is no coincidence that Gabriel Attal traveled to the United States for several days last February to discuss taxation. In many ways, the United States is a leader in the fight against global tax evasion. The Minister of Public Accounts would have looked in particular at the functioning of the American tax services (IRS), which use intelligence methods to track down major fraudsters. A point that France will imitate, according to the plan presented this Tuesday by the Minister Delegate.
Washington has built a strong arsenal against fraud and tax evasion. Regarding individuals, the United States can count on the FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts), introduced in 2011. This implies that any “U.S. Person“, having an account having posted a total positive balance of more than 10,000 dollars during the year outside the United States, must declare it to the Department of the Treasury before a deadline, under penalty of having to pay penalties representing up to 50% of assets. Under the presidency of Barack Obama, in 2010, the United States also implemented the FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), legislation obliging all banks or financial institutions to declare to the IRS the movements of their American customers or US resident, when the account exceeds $50,000.
The United States does not stop there, however. Since 2011, the rules on financial crime allow informants, wherever they are, to receive between 10 and 30% of the amount of the fine imposed on an offending company when the sanction exceeds a million dollars. France was quick to take inspiration from it: thetax adviserwas introduced in 2017 as an experiment for any tax evaded, as soon as the fraud exceeds 100,000 euros. The sums earned by French tax advisers are, however, less important than those of “whistleblowerAmerican (whistleblowers): in France, the compensation paid which is not strictly proportional to the tax evaded, nor fixed. It is the director general of public finances who determines the remuneration that will be allocated to the whistleblower.
The United States also inspired France to practice “dataminingin tax matters. it’s about the possibility for the tax administration to suck up data published by citizens on the internet – especially on social networks – to detect fraudsters. But where the United States finally backtracked after a few years of experimentation, France embraced the practice, ignoring the controversies.
Italy: the up and down fight against cash payment
Italy has long been a champion of tax evasion in Europe. This would be the cause of an annual loss of 100 billion euros for the coffers of the Italian State, according to the Bank of Italy. As part of the European recovery plan, Rome had made a commitment vis-à-vis Europe to hunt down tax evasion by limiting cash payments as well as by establishing an obligation to pay by electronic means.
According to the latest score of 2019, Italians pay 82% of their transactions in cash, compared to 73% for the European average, which facilitates the existence of a massive underground economy. Anxious to change this trend, the government of Mario Draghi had forced merchants to accept electronic payments for amounts less than 60 euros, under penalty of a fine of 30 euros, to which was added 4% of the price of the transaction. .
In a more original way, the country has gone so far as to organize a ticket lottery, or to offer the reimbursement of part of the purchases made in store by credit card in 2020. Efforts partly unraveled by the current President of the Council Giorgia Meloni: to thank her trader voters, she recently raised the ceiling for cash payments from 1,000 to 5,000 euros, despite the reservations of the European Commission.
Germany: an anonymous online tax reporting platform
In Germany too, everyday transactions are in the sights of the tax police. Contrary to France, which is preparing to put an end to receipts, Germany has made it compulsory, as of January 1, 2020, to issue receipts for any purchase made at a merchant. Before this date, nothing forced merchants to print a receipt, except at the request of the customer. The measure, which caused a lot of ink to flow across the Rhine, was presented as an effective weapon against tax evasion, since, according to the German Court of Auditors, 10 billion euros escaped the tax authorities each year due to manipulations checkouts in restaurants and small businesses.
Another tool in the fight against tax evasion recently drew criticism from our German neighbours. It is an anonymous online whistleblowing platform, intended to track down tax evaders. This “secure and anonymous communication channel“, in the words of the German Ministry of Finance, was set up in 2021 in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. If no study to date makes it possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the device, the environmentalist party wanted to extend it to the whole country. This regional initiative, however, is causing a stir in a country where denunciation echoes a dark past.
Finland: the tax income of all citizens revealed in the public square
Because it involves lifting the veil on hidden funding or dubious lifestyles, the fight against tax evasion does not always go hand in hand with respect for privacy. As such, a Finnish tradition is surprising: every 1is November, the Tax Office publishes the tax income of all Finns. A way to point the finger at fraudsters, or those who relocate to avoid taxes.
If nothing of the sort exists in France, the principle of “name and shameis also spreading in France. Since 2019, the French tax administration has been authorized, after obtaining the assent of the tax offenses commission, to make public the judgments handed down against companies for tax evasion.
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