Emmanuelle Ducros 8:56 a.m., February 13, 2024

Every morning after the 8:30 a.m. news, Emmanuelle Ducros reveals to listeners her “Journey into absurdity”, from Monday to Thursday.

Should you be wary of your friends on social networks? Yes, if you don't really know them. Because behind a Facebook friend there can be a tax agent hiding.

This is one of the surprises contained in the 2024 Finance Law, which has gone unnoticed but not for the Journalists of the Particular, who are launching an alert to false friends. The law gives new powers to tax officials. They can carry out investigations under a pseudonym on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) or TikTok to identify fraudsters. The latest decree is simply missing for this to be effective.

This means that behind a connection, a friendly request from someone you don't really know, there may soon be a public finance auditor looking for evidence of fraud.

Bercy agents were already rummaging through social networks.

For two years, the tax authorities have been testing an automated search system based on freely accessible content on online platforms. Traditional networks, but also Leboncoin, Vinted, Airbnb, which are vectors of hidden work. These networks can be used to prove that income from a vacation rental is not declared, e.g.

Here, it goes a step further

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To find information useful to their case, inspectors can now enter your private sphere under a fictitious identity, with your consent, but not entirely informed. By scrutinizing your friendly exchanges, they will know more about you... They may even ask you innocent questions. Wouldn't you like a cash payment for the rental?

It's a crime-pusher!

There are still conditions for tax agents to be interested in your case. You will have to be out of trouble already and the tax authorities will need to support a file that already exists. If he discovered that you are not declaring all your income, for example, he will try to find out if you are open to black market transactions.

If you have built something without authorization, this famous swimming pool that you flood Instagram with photos of, they will try to find out how long it has existed. And if your lifestyle clearly does not correspond to your activity, which gives rise to suspicion of trafficking, the tax agents disguised as good friends may ask you “hey, is this Porsche collection yours? “And bam. Trapped by your ego, you will serve them the proof on a platter. Your worst enemy is you.

Will all this be admissible?

We have no perspective, moreover, it is an experimental device. There are still many questions. How do we articulate this with the European data protection regulation, the GDPR. And above all, how do we deal with lying? People spend their time lying on their Instagram feed, FB, putting on a show. The tendency is to minimize with the tax authorities, but to add more to friends. It would be a shame to get caught because you really wanted to get smart with a friend's car