El fraude fiscal en la CAPV. Cuantificación, efectos y medidas para reducirlo

Tax fraud is seen as an essential problem from the viewpoint of public revenue and the capacity of the tax system to collect revenue. Also, it may be even more important from the viewpoint of fairness and the entitlement of the public sector legitimately to require honest taxpayers to pay taxes. There are no precise measurements of the extent of fraud in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (ACBC), but the indicators available suggest that it may be around 20%, which would make it similar to that in the rest of Spain. The population of the ACBC consider the level of fraud to be very high, and feel that the tax authorities are not doing enough to bring it down. Combating fraud must clearly be a priority goal for any tax authority, even though it may be a costly exercise and is likely to produce revenue only in the medium and long-term. The fact that immediate results may not be achieved does not make the struggle against fraud any less important, because it results in gains in fairness and, sooner or later, in increases in taxes collected. In that context, this paper sets out to analyse the situation regarding tax fraud in the ACBC and the measures that should be introduced to reduce it.