Taxes, tax diplomacy: parliamentarians recommend strengthening the fight against tax evasion

Raise global corporate taxes and tax billionaires more: a parliamentary report on Monday recommends strengthening the fight against tax evasion in France by also granting it more resources, deeming the government's efforts "insufficient".

Despite the anti-fraud plan presented in the spring by the executive, “the results of the tax audit remain mediocre, the staff and resources allocated to this mission remain insufficient”, tackles this report written by special rapporteur Charlotte Leduc (LFI ). The MP speaks of “insignificant measures” in the face of fraud which she estimates at between 80 and 120 billion euros: the fight against it must be a “national priority”, she insists.

There is no official estimate of the amount of tax fraud in France. To remedy this, the government launched in October a Fraud Evaluation Council responsible for quantifying these phenomena. The report, which emphasizes the international dimension of the fight against tax fraud, calls on France to “be at the forefront” in terms of tax diplomacy, “a question of political will”. It calls for increasing to 25% – compared to 15% currently – the minimum tax on corporate profits, which is gradually being rolled out across the world after the conclusion of an international agreement under the aegis of the OECD at the end of 2021 .

Concerning the assets of billionaires, he calls for the vote on a parliamentary resolution so that “France defends the creation of a European tax” at 2%. The document calls for more firmness towards tax havens and a tightening of measures surrounding “transfer pricing”, these cross-border transactions between subsidiaries of multinationals aimed at reducing profits and therefore taxes. He also proposes the establishment of unitary taxation for multinationals.

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In France, the report is concerned about an “alarming drop in staff” within the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP) which the 1,500 additional positions promised by the government by 2027 will not be able to compensate for. Customs must also be “strengthened”. The development of new technologies such as data mining (mass data processing) “must not be to the detriment of strengthening human expertise”, he insists, also considering it necessary to create a common database to the various anti-fraud services.

This is the second annual report on tax evasion written by Charlotte Leduc, responsible for a “transversal mission” on the subject. None of the recommendations in the previous version have been implemented, she points out.