“The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward,” John Maynard Keynes has said.
The Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) has set itself the goal of stopping this “intellectual pursuit”, by any means necessary, as it hurts not only public revenues, but also society. For this reason, it is proceeding with the adoption of new tools that will be put into operation in 2025 to further address tax evasion.
This, after all, was and remains the big bet, which will contribute to securing at least 2.5 billion euros in additional revenue from VAT and other taxes by 2027.
Especially, in the so-called “VAT gap”, that is, the VAT that the State loses every year due to tax evasion, the problem may have been reduced by half compared to 2017, but the central goal is to limit it to 9% in 2027.
For this reason, AADE will implement a series of new tools to combat tax evasion.
AADE is also activating the new control unit under the name of the Financial Action Task Force (DEOS), with the aim of strengthening the mechanisms for dealing with large and complex tax evasion cases. This new force will be composed of customs and tax officers, who will handle the most demanding tax evasion and smuggling cases, aiming at increasing tax collections with the ultimate goal of alleviating the tax burden on households and businesses.
The DEOS service will operate in coordination with the existing tax and customs services, while also having in its “arsenal” modern digital tools, using Artificial Intelligence. At the same time, it will utilize modern methods, such as data analysis, to conduct controls in high-risk cases.
