Tax evasion: the government wants to "make pay" the "ultra-rich"

Attal pulls out the fiscal weapon

Tax evasion: the government wants to "make pay" the "ultra-rich"

Attal pulls out the fiscal weapon. Monday, May 8, in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde, the Minister Delegate for Public Accounts Gabriel Attal announces that the government wants to increase tax audits on the "ultra-rich" by 25%. In addition, the Minister Delegate indicates the executive wants to control "every two years" the 100 largest market capitalizations, as part of a new plan to fight against tax fraud.

"Our priority: to make the ultra-rich and the multinationals who defraud pay what they owe", declared the Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal, unveiling measures of the plan which will be officially presented on Tuesday. Announced a long time ago and initially expected for 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 the sanctions will be toughened with regard to fraudsters, in particular "for the most serious faults" for which a "sanction of fiscal and civic indignity" may be pronounced, in the form of a deprivation of reduction or tax credit as well as the right to vote "for a certain period of time", the minister said.

He also announced the creation of a tax intelligence service in Bercy dedicated to the fight against major international fraud, staffed with around a hundred "elite agents" by the end of the five-year term, who will use the intelligence techniques such as "eavesdropping, data capture, beaconing".

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 having recourse to controls and by establishing "a Automatic penalty waiver for first mistake". Another gesture towards the common taxpayers: the creation of an "automatic reverse penalty in favor of the taxpayer in the event of an error by the administration", promised Gabriel Attal.

By sparing them, the presidential majority hopes to attract into its fold the middle classes which could be tempted by the extreme right.

In France, "10% of taxpayers pay 70% of income tax", recalled the minister for whom fraud "of the most powerful is unforgivable". "I'm not saying they defraud more, but when they do, the amounts are significant," the minister pointed out.

It will be "1,500 additional staff" who will be dedicated to the fight against tax evasion by 2027, he further indicated.

Gabriel Attal recalled in early May that in terms of tax evasion, "we had [in 2022] 14.6 billion euros in collections 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 Urssaf", according to him. Measures to combat social fraud will be presented "by the end of the month" of May, he said.

The government is attacking a phenomenon that is not the subject of any official estimate: "Some people speak of 30 billion, others of 100!" admits Gabriel Attal. But the fraud therefore potentially represents several billions or tens of billions to be recovered by the State.