The Tax and Customs Authority (AT) does not have a comprehensive plan to control illegal leasing that integrates complaints and information about water and energy contracts that supplying companies are obliged to to send you.
This is one of the conclusions of a performance audit of tax control in the context of real estate leasing, carried out by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) in 2023, the results of which are published in the report on combating tax and customs fraud and evasion for 2023 – produced by AT.
According to current legislation, companies supplying water, energy and telecommunications must communicate to AT, by April 15th, July 15th, October 15th and January 15th, the contracts signed with the respective customers, as well as changes that occurred in the previous quarter.
This communication is made through the so-called Model 2 of the IMI, with the IGF noting the absence of a plan on the part of the AT that integrates the information contained in this Model 2 with the rental reports undeclared.
This information “has not been used consistently for control purposes, despite its usefulness in analyzing the risk of tax evasion”, concludes the audit, with the IGF stating that This was demonstrated by the results obtained in the samples constituted based on this information and in which 60% of the tenant contractors did not have a registered/current lease contract and 25% of the owner contractors, with supply contracts for several houses, had no declared activity.
The IGF also says that AT does not know the universe of complaints received and does not have an application that simplifies the communication process and “ensures its efficient, dematerialized and centralized management “.
Faced with this situation, the IGF suggests that the tax authorities create an integrated action plan to control leases without the respective registered contract and maximize the use of the data that reaches them through of Model 2, namely that it analyzes the identified risk situations, such as the existence of owners with contracts to supply that type of service to several houses without having a declared activity or tenants who contracted those services those for which there is no record of a lease contract.
Another IGF audit of AT, carried out in 2023 and referred to in this report, focused on tax benefits for investment, an area where data indicates that the number of taxpayers who deduct more than one benefit is growing, which makes control difficult.
In addition to the diversity, number and complexity of determination methods and rules of use, AT does not have a risk analysis strategy and methodologies for integrated control of these benefits is mentioned.
The annual report on the fight against tax and customs fraud and evasion must be sent by the Government to parliament by the end of June of the following year to which it relates, and the document must include the results achieved, particularly with regard to concerns the value of additional settlements carried out and the amount recovered in various taxes.
