Even if you are perfectly blameless, you are likely to be subject to a tax audit soon if you meet these new surveillance criteria.
Tax audits are something that scares everyone, even those who are perfectly in order. And when faced with this risk, not all taxpayers are in the same boat. While professions that handle a lot of cash or manage large sums of money are naturally more exposed, some ordinary citizens are also in the tax authorities’ sights.
For several years, the European Union has made the fight against money laundering and tax fraud one of its main focuses. In this fight, it has equipped itself with a whole legal and administrative arsenal in order to successfully conduct investigations on an international scale. Indeed, tracking down tax evasion always requires monitoring financial flows between different countries.
But the problem is that many states are reluctant, if not downright hostile, to international cooperation in the fight against tax fraud. As a result, EU member states often hit a wall when investigating tax fraud in one of these territories, and struggle to obtain the information and evidence needed to unmask the fraudsters.
Faced with this problem, the European Union has therefore drawn up a list “non-cooperative countries and territories for tax purposes”which it updates regularly. The latest revision of this “black list”, published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 26 February 2024contained the names of twelve countries and territories, and suffice to say that if you have ties to any of them, you have reason to be concerned.
Indeed, people linked in one way or another to one of these states are the subject of particular attention on the part of the tax administration. Whether or not you have French nationality, your case will certainly be scrutinized closely if you have traveled to one of these countries, if you have resided there, if part of your family lives there or if you do business with one of them.
The twelve countries and territories currently under enhanced surveillance are American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, the Russian Federation, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, the US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu. So be vigilant if you have family, personal or professional ties to any of these territories, and keep your finances in good order so that you are in compliance should you ever have the unpleasant experience of a tax audit!