2023-11-15 18:24:08
How much is personal tax fraud? “Unlike many countries, France does not have any rigorous evaluation”regrets the Court of Auditors in a report published Wednesday November 15 on the detection of tax fraud by individuals, a theme resulting from a citizen consultation, a sign, according to financial magistrates, of the importance of the subject for the French.
The only figures available to the rue Cambon institution are the 14.6 billion euros claimed in 2022 by the tax authorities after the tax audits carried out, i.e. 11.95 billion in taxes evaded. “But it is impossible to say whether this detected fraud represents 20%, 50% or 80% of the frauds committed”alarms the first president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici.
The General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP) has announced a more rigorous evaluation tool for 2027. “We should definitely not delay this deadline, warns Pierre Moscovici. And if it could be moved forward a little, that would be great. »
Number of checks down
Why such difficulty in assessing tax fraud? “Because, in a logic of performance, the tax administration prefers a strategy based on risk analysis, rather than general sampling work which, according to it, would lead to spreading its resources too thin on generally compliant files »summarizes Carine Camby, president of the first chamber of the Court of Auditors, responsible in particular for public finances.
In fact, if, for a long time, tax audits targeted the largest taxpayers, digitalization has allowed the tax administration to access an increasingly considerable amount of data that it can cross-reference to detect anomalies. Since the 2010s, this work of cross-referencing files, supported by more in-depth intelligence work, has allowed the DGFiP to be more precise in its controls.
Thus, the number of these has tended to decrease: 926,000 documentary checks in 2012 compared to 726,000 in 2022. During the same period, the number of “verifications of personal tax situation” – what is commonly called ” tax audit “with the visit of an inspector – even decreased by 45% (4,159 against 2,293).
Working in silos
“But their performance remained about the same level, suggesting that each control is a little more effective”notes Emmanuel Giannesini, section president who is however concerned about “not seeing a major qualitative leap emerge” in this matter. “The share of fraud files or those subject to adjustment within the files controlled has remained at around 55% since 2018”notes the report.
For financial magistrates, it is more a work in silos between, on the one hand, those who are responsible for detecting tax fraud and, on the other, those who are responsible for controls, which slows down the action of the DGFiP in estimation and the fight against fraud.
The government certainly presented an anti-fraud plan at the beginning of the summer, structured around 35 measures. But these last “target businesses more than individuals” et “do not mention fraud detection as such”regrets the Court.
“The door is open to the most fanciful estimates”
“It is the responsibility of the tax administration to explain what it controls and why”insists Pierre Moscovici for whom “you have to hear” citizens’ questions about tax fraud, “otherwise, it’s the door open to the most fanciful estimates and all the fantasies about who pays what”.
“For the moment, because we have a good administration and the citizens are good taxpayers, the tax is coming in well, he notes. But if the administration’s strategy was not better formalized, it is consent to tax that could decline. »
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