Customs Surveillance, "worried" by the fall of complaints for tax crimes

Customs Surveillance, "worried" by the fall of complaints for tax crimes

The association that includes these officials claim a larger workforce and remind that half of the employees will retire in eight years

  The Association of the Superior Body of Customs Surveillance (IAF) on Tuesday showed its "concern" for the "remarkable" reduction in the number of tax crimes reported by the Tax Agency. This was expressed yesterday by the president of the organization in a meeting on the underground economy organized by the Association of Journalists of Economic Information (APIE). Specifically, the fiscal crimes denounced by the Treasury in 2016 -the last data available- decreased by 33%, going from 341 to 226. The collapse reaches 78% when compared to the maximum obtained in 2011.

   This decrease also had an impact on the amount of fraud claimed. Thus, in 2016 it was 278 million, compared to 442 million in 2015. That is to say, a significant setback of 37%. However, the collapse multiplies and reaches 69.4% when compared to the 909 million that the Treasury claimed in 2011. The Tax Agency argues that the evolution of complaints are related to economic developments and that the 2011 data, For example, they correspond to investigations initiated in previous years in the middle of the real estate bubble.

In any case, from the IAF also highlighted on Tuesday the need to raise the public employment offer not only to cover the retirements that occur in the agency-half of the staff will reach the legal retirement age in eight years, but to increase the number of troops currently reaching 2,000 agents.

In the same forum, the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Javier Zaragoza, highlighted the judicial police role performed by these officials. Also, this expert with extensive experience in the fight against drug trafficking, warned that the situation in the locations of the Strait of Gibraltar "is worse" than the one that existed in Galicia a few decades ago. In this sense, he urged to take measures and be "more incisive" against being criminal organizations.