Tax evasion in liberal professions… new techniques that explore the “standard of living”

New data revealed that the monitoring services affiliated with the General Directorate of Taxes resorted to adopting new techniques in detecting tax evasion, by relying on the “standard of living” index (le niveau de vie), which, when linked to the declared incomes, allows verification of the validity of the data provided by those obligated to pay, Especially from those with liberal professions, such as doctors and architects, whose unpaid tax amounts go to the state treasury.

Informed sources reported that the new effective technique for detecting those evading the performance of their tax duties is to follow up and monitor the standard of living of people who are suspected of not declaring their real incomes, explaining that it was decided to use all means in order to be able to monitor those evading the performance of tax dues and force them to pay them. What is their responsibility, as the General Directorate of Taxes will use numerous data that confirm the existence of areas for tax evasion, on which supervision is currently focused.

The same sources confirmed, in statements to Hespress, that the tax administration data showed that a significant percentage of self-employed individuals reported incomes lower than their real revenues, as audits and evaluations of the return of the income tax base revealed a low contribution from the aforementioned category of obligated people, compared to employees subject to the deduction procedure from Al-Masbaa, explaining that the difference in tax revenues collected between these obligors exceeded a ceiling of 6 billion dirhams.

The General Directorate of Taxes has agreements with other departments, such as the National Agency for Real Estate Conservation, in order to exchange data through electronic channels, which enables it to review the assets of those suspected of evading taxes, as some of those obligated to declare incomes that do not exceed 10 thousand dirhams. per month, while they own billions in real estate, which is not proportionate to the declared income.

The same sources explained that the new technology to detect evaders from paying income tax dues is expected to be enhanced by information received from social networking sites, which have begun to provide important data about obligated persons, who do not hesitate to publish details of their lives on them, which would enable tax inspectors to evaluate… The validity of the tax declarations they submit to the tax authorities regarding their income.

Self-employed people are positioned at the top of the groups targeted by the new technology, given that a number of them declare incomes that are much lower than the nature of their activity, especially since the Tax Administration has other sources of information to deepen the research and identify some of the properties that may be in the possession of the obligated persons, and their relationship with it has appeared on the social media sites.

It is noteworthy that a previous audit by the General Directorate of Taxes targeted employees working in some liberal professions, after obtaining data about their resorting to acquiring artistic paintings to save their money in them, especially since most of them deal in banknotes (cash) and do not declare their real transaction number, while they save the rest in businesses. Technically, to avoid depositing this money in banks, so that they are not discovered regarding the validity of their tax declarations about income.