The Anti-Fraud Plan emerges in Castellón 8.1 million euros in the year of the Covid: 22.5% more

The coronavirus pandemic has not stopped the Antifraud Plan of the Valencian Tax Agency (ATV). The stoppage of certain verification and investigation actions during the health crisis and the declaration of a state of alarm have not prevented the Agency from surfacing in the year of the Covid 22.5% more money defrauded by taxpayers of the province of Castellón than in 2019.

The data is compelling. The control, verification and investigation actions carried out by management (extensive control) and by inspection (intensive control) have uncovered a fraud amounting to 8.1 million euros in the accumulated from January to October 2020 versus 6.6 million euros raised during the same period last year, according to the latest data offered by the Valencian Tax Agency.

This year-on-year increase of 22.5% in the amount defrauded in the province of Castellón also occurs despite the reduction in the actions carried out, that yes they have been affected for the exceptionality that is marking the Covid-19.

In this sense, compared to the 5,249 control actions carried out by the Tax Agency from January to October 2019 in the province of Castellón, this year the volume of shares rose to 3,494 in the first 10 months of the year, which is 33.4% less in the interannual rate.

On the other hand, to the control and inspection actions that have uncovered a fraud worth 8.1 million euros up to October in the province of Castellón, are added the following 103.4 million euros that the people of Castellón have self-assessed during the current year to the extent that the Agency induces voluntary compliance with tax obligations.

In the evolution of self-assessments, the health pandemic has left its mark. And it is that compared to the 103.4 million euros that the taxpayers of the province have self-assessed from January to October 2020, last year the amount was 127.9 million euros, so that the year-on-year fall stands at 19%.

 «Let us not forget the pandemic situation we are experiencing and the restrictions suffered during the declaration of the state of alarm, where all tax procedures have been paralyzed», they recall from the Valencian Tax Agency.

Regarding the taxes in which the highest economic amount has emerged in the province of Castellón, both in the self-assessments entered and as a result of the tax fraud control actions, the Tax on Patrimonial Transmissions and Documented Legal Acts accumulates the highest volume with 72.7 million euros until the end of October.

Below is the Tax on Successions and Donations, with 26.7 million euros, and Gambling rates are in third place with 5.9 million euros in the counties of Castellón.

Thus, the total sum of self-assessments and fraud amounts to 105.5 million euros, which rises to 111.5 million euros if the fines and interest derived from these actions are accounted for.

Management plan

From the beginning of its activity, the ATV’s mission is to help fulfill the duty of contributing to the support of public expenses, fighting against tax fraud and especially watching over the application of the resources under its charge.

Under this objective, the Agency has a strategic planning that allows establishing specific objectives to be achieved through precise lines of action. In this context, the Multi-year ATC Management Plan for 2020-2023 offers a clear vision of the strategies to be followed and the measures to be taken in that period, including both the objectives to be met and the programs necessary to its achievement and the indicators that allow its evaluation.

Between whats strategic objectives included in the Multi-year Plan, the ATV identifies as one of them, improve the conditions and results of the fight against tax fraud. Thus, the Agency’s effort is aimed at pursuing and combating tax fraud in any of its forms, and requires an organized, permanent, coordinated, planned and adequately dimensioned response from the Administration. This strategy to fight against tax fraud is designed from a triple perspective: prevention, control and cooperation, they explain from the Agency.

Although the guidelines of the Tax Control Plan do not contemplate specific measures in relation to the situation caused by the incidence of Covid-19, the ATV has adapted the performance of its functions to such circumstance, they affirm from the Agency. Â «The impulse of the electronic processing and the making available to the taxpayer of the by phone appointment, are examples of the Agency’s involvement in its effort to facilitate compliance with tax obligations, which, in turn, It results in data quality and management efficiency. », they add from the Valencian Tax Agency.

Through these actions  «it is intended to identify the tax contingencies derived from the current situation caused by Covid-19 or not, through the exploitation of information with tax significance in order to combat tax evasion and fraud, since it is one of the the basic pillars of the Agency’s actions, ”conclude the ATV.