The government wants to increase by 25% the tax audits "of the largest assets"

Europe 1 with AFP / photo credit: XOSE BOUZAS / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 21:22 pm, May 08, 2023

The government announced Monday that it wants to increase tax audits of "the largest assets" by 25% by the end of the five-year term and control "every two years" the hundred largest market capitalizations, as part of a new plan to fight tax fraud. "Our priority: to make pay what they owe to the ultra-rich and multinationals who defraud," said Minister Delegate for Public Accounts Gabriel Attal in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde, unveiling measures of the plan that will be officially presented Tuesday.

Long announced and initially expected at the end of the first quarter, the presentation of this plan, one of the pillars of the government's strategy to restore public finances, has been postponed several times. Gabriel Attal announces that sanctions will be toughened against fraudsters, especially "for the most serious faults" for which a "sanction of fiscal and civic indignity" may be pronounced, in the form of a deprivation of tax reduction or credit as well as the right to vote "for a certain period", said the minister.

A tax information service

He also announced the creation of a tax intelligence service at Bercy dedicated to the fight against major international fraud, with a hundred "elite agents" by the end of the five-year term, who will use intelligence techniques such as "wiretapping, data capture, setting beacons". By attacking the wealthiest, the minister insists at the same time on the idea of "relieving the pressure on the small taxpayer, the small boss, by massifying" regularizations rather than resorting to controls and by introducing "an automatic penalty remission for the first error".

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Another gesture towards ordinary taxpayers: the creation of an "automatic reverse penalty in favor of the taxpayer in case of error of the administration", promised Gabriel Attal. It will be "1,500 additional personnel" who will be dedicated to the fight against tax fraud by 2027, he said.

Measures against social fraud coming soon

Gabriel Attal recalled last week that in terms of tax fraud, "last year we had 14.6 billion euros of assessments notified by the Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFiP)". Regarding social fraud, "we recovered 800 million euros of unpaid social contributions on the side of the Urssaf", according to him. Measures to combat social fraud will be presented "by the end of May", he said.