After pensions, this will be one of the next big projects of Elisabeth Borne’s government. The day after Emmanuel Macron spoke, Action and Public Accounts Minister Gabriel Attal told France Inter on Tuesday that he would intensify the fight against tax and social fraud. “I proposed to all the parliamentary groups of the National Assembly and the Senate to participate in the elaboration of a plan, he explained. I will present it in the coming weeks with strong measures to fight more against tax and social fraud in our country. “
Among these strong measures, the Minister of Public Accounts wants to double the staff of the judicial investigation service or even complete the reform of the RSA. The government also plans to prevent the transfer of rights to accounts domiciled abroad, such as Portugal or in the Maghreb countries, as confirmed by the Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, on the set of BFM TV. To do this, the executive will ask the airlines in particular to track the movements of the beneficiaries. BFM Business returned to the latest figures reported by Bercy two months ago and which show the known scope of the phenomenon.
More than ten billion euros in taxes due to tax evasion controls
On February 23, the Ministry of Economy and Finance published a report on the fight against tax, customs and social fraud for the year 2022. While the Finanzas Solidarias union has estimated for several years that tax fraud ranges between 80 and 100 billion euros per year, Bercy indicates that the tax administration has collected 14.6 billion euros in 2022, 8.2% more in one year. On-site tax audit operations, mainly in companies, account for 8,800 million euros in rights and sanctions, the rest being linked to off-site tax audits.
On the other hand, this figure of 14.6 billion euros established by the Ministry of Economy and Finance does not include undue deductions and taxes not reimbursed by taxpayers. According to the estimates of the firm of Gabriel Attal obtained The worldthe final amount published in two months by the General Directorate of Public Finance (DGFiP) should amount to 17.6 billion euros.
These are recovery figures that do not systematically give rise to the payment of the amounts owed for two reasons: the bankruptcy of the companies or the insolvency of the people who have defrauded. In 2022, the State thus collected 10.6 billion euros in taxes after an audit, a stable amount compared to 2021. “This result is mainly driven by corporate tax and wage tax (+30% compared to 2021) and inheritance tax (+ 23% compared to 2021)”, indicates Bercy.
Sharp increase in detected cases of health insurance fraud
Regarding social fraud, the State and social security entities detected 1,600 million euros in 2022. Fraud in social recovery represents almost half of this amount with adjustments derived from the URSSAF’s fight against informal work up to 788 millions of euros. For its part, the Network of Family Allowance Funds (CAF) detected 49,000 cases of fraud in social benefits for a total loss of 351 million euros. This is a little more than the 316 million euros in health insurance fraud detected in 19,000 files, two numbers that rise by around 45% in one year. Finally, the network of the National Old Age Insurance Fund (CNAV) avoided 155 million euros of improper payment in 2022.
The total number of social fraud (detected or not) is inherently difficult to estimate. In 2019, a note from Acoss, the body that collects social security contributions, estimated that social security fraud represented between 7,000 and 9,000 million euros in 2018.
Bruno Le Maire’s statements evoking fraud on the part of the people who would return social assistance “to the Maghreb” did not take long to react during the day. Insubordinate France (LFI) leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon rose up on Twitter. “Dear Muslim compatriots or natives like me from the Maghreb, prepare yourselves. To create a distraction, the government announces through the voice of Bruno Le Maire a new campaign to point fingers at them. In cold blood,” he wrote. For the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure, “the extreme right dangerously fills the government vacuum”, he lamented, lamenting on Twitter that the government “mobilizes racist prejudices to avoid remembering that social fraud is essentially done by businessmen and that evasion prosecutor is beyond measure.
And the rebel deputy Thomas Porte highlighted that “+ social fraud + is estimated at 1 to 2 billion euros per year. On the other hand, tax evasion is between 80 and 100 billion euros per year”, inviting Bruno Le Mayor to “go see”. Switzerland”, “instead of talking about the Maghreb and taking up the racist elements of the extreme right”. The environmentalist deputy Aurélien Taché for his part estimated that the French “are especially fed up with people like Bernard Arnault, the richest man in the world , ask for Belgian nationality to avoid paying more taxes in France.” “They understood that you are there to create a distraction,” he tweeted to Bruno Le Maire.
Source: BFM TV
