[ad_1]
According to the report "Fighting Fraud and Tax and Customs Evasion", the Treasury held a total of 35 criminal investigation proceedings last year, considering an unlawful advantage of "fraud". approximately 46.6 million euros. .
According to TA, it is mainly in the field of VAT that the bulk of the illegitimate amount detected by the tax authorities (about 38.7 million euros) was concentrated, followed by the amounts of VAT. IRS (4.5 million euros) and IRC (3.4 million).
Of these cases, six (with an estimated illegal equity benefit of 11.5 million euros) were completed and 12 new ones were made.
The investigation procedures are conducted by tax authorities and mixed teams (along with other criminal policy agencies) for the Department of Fraud Investigations and Special Actions (DSIFAE).
The DSIFAE was created in 2006 and, according to the report, "has acquired a great deal of knowledge and experience in this field, increasingly recognized by the public prosecutor", becoming, in practice, the criminal police with a specific skill, able to intervene in all situations related to fiscal crime. "
These processes are considered "more complex", involving "complex fraud schemes with territorial dispersion on the national territory, and in most cases also with links with countries of the European Union or third countries "offshore
Last year, the Treasury conducted 1,043 investigations, 36 searches, 119 account analyzes and 392 financial analyzes (on bank accounts), 62 defendants and 37 witnesses.
In addition, the Treasury conducted "special actions" investigation, following the "Swissleaks" cases, "Panama Papers" and the 10,000-million-euro breakout for "offshore" without tax treatment.
In the case of Swissleaks, AT closed 32 investigations in 2017 on 54 individual holders of passive accounts at HSBC Bank in Switzerland in 2006, concluding that "most of the identified persons had already closed the accounts, having joined the successive RERs , repatriating the amounts to Portugal, "says the report.
Already after the disclosure, last year, of nearly 10,000 million euros to be relocated between 2011 and 2014 without any fiscal control, the Treasury conducted nine investigation actions, which have already concluded without detecting "irregularities with the respective transfers".
However, during these actions, "other situations were detected for which corrections were proposed, sent to the Finance Departments, concerning IRS and IRC tax issues", rising to around 2.3 million euros.
In the case of the Panama Papers, from the whole data relating to Portugal, the tax administration found other taxpayers related to the case, getting a total of 234 numbers Tax identification (TIN) and, until the end of 2017, detailed analysis of 54 taxable persons that resulted in 10 inspection actions to be conducted by the anti-fraud unit of AT, which were still under investigation at the end of 2017.
With regard to the criminal investigation, AT regrets that "not always" it is possible to obtain from the prosecutor's office the data that allow to follow the procedure, assuming that he often ignores the decisions rendered.
Nevertheless, according to the decisions communicated to AT, the public prosecutor 's office decided to proceed to eight counts and to a single filing, which represents an illegal advantage of 12.2 million euros.
Of these decisions, 91 were made, the vast majority of whom were charged with skilled fraud (73), followed by money laundering (9), fraud (6) and tax evasion ( 3).
However, in 2017, the courts decided to sentence only three defendants: two with a prison sentence and one with a fine. The AT declares that the vast majority of the decisions of the Public Prosecutor's Office are not communicated to it.
Source link
