Inspectors ask to centralize tax management to stop fraudsters from transferring to different communities | Economy | EUROtoday

Fraudsters know the right way to reap the benefits of the weaknesses of the Spanish tax system and the elite physique of the Tax Agency needs to begin placing a cease to them. The Association of State Treasury Inspectors (IHE) has proposed to the Ministry of Finance an initiative to “nationalize” the powers of the monetary and tax inspection. The goal, in keeping with the doc offered this Friday throughout the closing of its XXXV annual congress, is to encompass and enhance strain on fraudsters, reinforce the unity of the tax system and keep away from what they name a “territorial fragmentation” of the Tax Administration.

Currently, explains the elite physique of the Tax Agency, inspection powers are restricted to the regional degree and linked to the tax domicile of the taxpayer, for instance, a fraud firm. This mannequin causes rigidities, inequalities and inefficient use of human assets. In their evaluation, the inspectors preserve {that a} centralized construction would enable officers to be mobilized the place there’s a higher workload or extra complicated circumstances, enhance the technical specialization of the groups and homogenize standards all through the territory. In addition, they emphasize that the company already operates with centralized databases, so the territorial limitation “is administrative, not technical.”

Years in the past, explains José María Peláez, spokesperson for the affiliation, the inspection’s powers had been provincial and progress was made in the direction of regionalization on the autonomous degree. “Now we want to take another leap to be able to inspect taxpayers located in other communities.” The present underlying drawback, he summarizes, is that when an inspector detects potential fraudulent maneuvers in different autonomies – such because the issuance of false invoices – he has to ask for permission to research them. They are bureaucratic procedures which can be unnecessarily extended or that even finish in a refusal by the overall inspection directorate.

“Companies know this and many relocate on purpose to specific territories,” continues Ana de la Herrán, president of the affiliation. Teresa Benito, vp, focuses instantly on the Community of Madrid, the place the ratio between taxpayers and inspectors is way decrease than in different territories. If a fraudster locates his firm in Cuenca or La Rioja, the inspectors summarize, they are going to be sure that the inspection will knock on the door in some unspecified time in the future, but when they go to Madrid they may have the ability to go extra unnoticed. “Fraud is globalized, that is why we have to move towards the nationalization of control,” summarizes Benito.

All these recommendations, offered at a gathering that introduced collectively greater than 650 inspectors in Salamanca, can’t be separated from the negotiations between the central authorities and Catalonia to maneuver in the direction of a novel financing mannequin. The union doesn’t disguise its worry that the talks will result in a switch of tax powers to the Generalitat that “would put at risk the equality between the territories and the integrity of the tax system itself.”

The switch to the Generalitat of the administration and assortment of all taxes – beginning with private earnings tax – would violate the constitutional rules of equality and solidarity, say the inspectors, who warn of “serious damages” within the software of the tax system, each as a result of enhance in fraud and the deterioration of the companies supplied to residents.

Faced with this situation, the group defends the creation of its personal Statute for the Tax Agency, pending for greater than 20 years. This shielding would grant natural and purposeful autonomy to the group, along with shielding it from political interference to ensure its position as an administration “of everyone and for everyone.” The inspectors demand that its normal director be appointed by Parliament and never by the Government, and that the administration physique embody technical representatives from all public administrations. The union remembers different widespread proposals, such because the “civil death” of fraud corporations or the creation of a tax police.

They research a potential embezzlement

The inspectorate has been overtly confronting for months the method of making distinctive financing for Catalonia and the steps that the Government and the Generalitat have begun to take to implement it. The affiliation warns that public funds might be used to construct a construction that also lacks a authorized foundation and they’re learning potential embezzlement.

The inspectors level out that the Commissioner’s Advisory Council has already been established and a rule has been authorised to adapt the authorized regime of the Tax Agency of Catalonia to the brand new financing mannequin. “There is a spending of public money on something that does not yet exist. We are evaluating whether there may be a deviation or even a possible misappropriation of public resources, because the final rule has not yet been approved,” they emphasize. And they placed on the desk potential legal measures on this regard.

In his opinion, “the house is being built through the roof”, since earlier than modifying the construction of the Catalan company, the distinctive financing mannequin itself ought to have been outlined and authorised.

The discomfort additionally extends to the office. The affiliation acknowledges a rising concern amongst Tax Agency staff in Catalonia, involved concerning the uncertainty and strain derived from this course of. “We are concerned about the mental health and emotional balance of our colleagues. We do not understand that while workers in other areas are protected, those in the public administration are left aside,” they denounce.