Margaux Fodéré, edited by Alexandre Dalifard / Photo credit: JEROME LEBLOIS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 06:15, 09 May 2023

On Tuesday, the government unveiled its plan to fight tax evasion. This mainly concerns companies because individuals have less leeway to fraud. The most identified fraud is that of VAT where companies inflate the amount of tax to be reimbursed by the State.

D-Day for the fight against tax fraud. The government will unveil this Tuesday its plan to fight against tax evasion that mainly concerns companies. Individuals, on the other hand, have less leeway to defraud, especially since the introduction of the withholding tax. But concretely today, how much does tax fraud represent in France?

Between €80 billion and €100 billion

It is very difficult to quantify precisely the phenomenon, but what is certain is that it is in the billions of euros. Between 80 and 100 billion euros, according to the union Solidaires Finances publiques. The most identified fraud is that of VAT. For example, a company may inflate the amount of tax to be reimbursed by the state. Each year, the shortfall would be between 20 and 25 billion euros, according to INSEE estimates. And of this amount, only 2.2 billion euros were recovered by the tax administration last year, an amount that is increasing but still less than the amounts not paid.

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Another tax fraud in France: that of dividend arbitrage. Concretely, these are financial arrangements that allow foreign shareholders to escape tax on dividends in France. At the end of March, five major French banks, including BNP Paribas and HSBC, were searched on suspicion of this type of practice.