robust speeches, disappointing outcomes | EUROtoday

Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.

The Ministry of the Economy and Finance, in Bercy (Paris), January 4, 2025.

When it involves tax fraud, speeches always promise robust actions and vital outcomes. This is once more the case of the invoice in opposition to social and tax fraud which, after passing by means of the Senate, should be debated within the National Assembly from January 13, 2026. To struggle in opposition to this “direct attack on the republican pact”, the Lecornu authorities thus intends to equip itself with“ever more effective tools” And “relentlessly tracking down tax and social fraud”.

In truth, the vitality introduced is just not there. This is the discovering established by the Court of Auditors in a report unveiled Tuesday, December 16. After analyzing the actions deployed over the previous ten years, its specialists arrive at a triple disappointment. First, we nonetheless know little concerning the extent of tax fraud. Then, the income collected because of the controls decreases in relation to the full taxes. Finally, regardless of guarantees, fraud is just not “neither more frequently nor more harshly punished than ten years ago”.

Everything occurs as if, past phrases, the political will was not highly effective sufficient to compensate for the State’s lack of assets on this space. This is noticed from the query of prognosis. How a lot does tax fraud weigh in France: 10 billion euros, 17 billion, as the federal government claims, and even 100 billion or extra, as some unions counsel? In a observe dated October 16, the Economic Analysis Council, hooked up to Matignon, cited an extra-wide vary, “between 14 and 52 billion euros” per yr. The Court of Auditors is increasing it additional. “No one can right this moment enterprise to say that this quantity is near 30 [milliards] or 130 billion euros »she writes.

You have 71.94% of this text left to learn. The relaxation is reserved for subscribers.

https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2025/12/16/lutte-contre-la-fraude-fiscale-des-discours-muscles-des-resultats-decevants_6658128_823448.html