Nine months after the scandal of the Panama Papers, the circle tightens up on alleged tax evaders in italy. The Revenue Agency has started investigation on the 700 names that emerged from the papers of the law firm panama Mossack Fonseca stolen by an unknown whistleblower, and delivered to the journalists of the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. On April 3 of last year, the documents were published simultaneously by 100 newspapers around the world participating in the international Consortium investigative journalists. Since then, the Panama Papers have been published in more than 4.700 inquiries all over the globe.
more great collaboration’s fiscal history
The largest operation of network journalism of all-time is born the greatest cooperation between the tax agencies of the story, the story that is taking shape in these months, the inside of the Jitsic, the Joint international taskforce on shared intelligence and collaboration, a task force of the Oecd, which brings together 36 tax administrations around the world. Already a few days after the publication of the Panama Papers, the Oecd had decided to involve the Jitsic to start the special program of cooperation between the countries members of the organization. The meetings have taken place in these months, and the 16 and 17 January in Paris, the representatives of the 30 tax administrations shared their conclusions on the investigations on the Panama Papers. Information that have also included the role of intermediaries in tax, financial institutions, consultants, lawyers and accountants who have fostered or buil t schemes of tax evasion and avoidance. These elements are essential for the understanding of the mechanisms at the basis of the Panama Papers.
Panama papers, 700 Italian subjects in the viewfinder of Revenue
The strategy of multilateral cooperation is beginning to bear fruit also for the case of Italy. The number of 700 names under the lens of the Revenue Agency, in fact, is destined to grow and it is the same agency, Italian tax to specify in a note that “significant results were achieved, including the development of homogeneous approaches to request the information between the partners of the treaties, and was in-depth knowledge of the various types of tax evasion developed by the intermediaries in the tax and of the new techniques of data analysis”. Important advances have been obtained also for the compliance activities, with over 1,700 checks and audits performed on taxpayers, most of 2,550 requests for information, and the identification of a list target of 100 intermediaries”.
Not only. A further positive effect is represented by the fact that a large number of taxpayers came forward spontaneously to declare to the Tax authorities its operations o ffshore. “The meeting of the task force has seen the biggest exchange of information, simultaneous never realized before now, based on legal instruments concluded within the framework of the Multilateral Convention Oecd – Council of Europe and of the tax treaties”, underlines the Agency of Revenue.
What are worth the secrets of the Panama Papers? Lost 230 billion dollars in a week
Investigations open in the middle of the world
the publication of The Panama Paers has sparked a real cyclone in all corners of the world. The initiative of the tax agencies international, in fact, adds to the 150 surveys games in 79 countries. Under investigation are finished at least 6,500 for taxpayers, including individuals and companies, and have been so far recovered 110 million dollars of unpaid taxes, a figure that is expected to clearly increase unless the hand that the investigations will be closed in the different countries.
In the United States an investigation on the alleged tax evaders has been opened by the office of the district attorney of New York. In Asia, the parliament of Taiwan, has adopted new measures on tax avoidance after the diffusion of the Panama Papers. In New Zealand, the government has opened an investigation into the fraudulent use of trusts and has announced a new law to plug the loopholes that make these tools a vehicle formidab le of tax evasion. Even Panama was forced to approve new rules on offshore company and edntrare in the list of countries which will exchange automatically tax information.
The consequences are not missed even in Europe, where last October the irish minister for Finance has proposed a new law to combat tax evasion. In November, however, the German Finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has proposed a new law – called the "Law of Panama" – to increase the penalties for tax evasion and to strengthen the transparency obligations in the relations between the German companies and the company shield in tax havens.
Thousands of alleged tax evaders are finished under investigation in Great Britain, Canada, France, India, and Pakistan. In Iceland, are more than 100 names under investigation and 46 cases of suspected tax evasion arrived at the judgment. In Great Britain the people under investigation were 22 until last December, while for the other 46 are on the spotlight of the magistrates. In Canada, 85 of the subjects at the centre of criminal investigations, and tax, in France there are 560 while 415 subjects are run in to the justice in India and 20 in Pakistan. Added to this is the commission of inquiry into the Panama Papers established last June by the european Parliament and in November the Europol revealed that they have tracked well 3.469 points of contact between the documents of the Panama Papers, and the names contained in the file on the criminal organizations of the agency of investigation european.
The role of the leaks
Looking at these numbers you can not say that the revelation of the documents stolen from the servers of the Mossack Fonseca have been useless. On the contrary. On closer look, the latest developments announced by the Italian Revenue Agency the Italian on the 700 contacts under observation are the tangible sign of how much the leaks of the last few years have played an important role in the fight against tax evasion international. OffshoreLeaks, SwissLeaks, Panama Papers and BahamasLeaks revealed to the world the existence of a proven system that is focused on tax havens to dribble the payment of taxes.
The consequences have been positive, even on the level of the law. After the publication of the List Falciani, for example, some of the judgments of the Court of Cassation have established the lawfulness of the use of the material stolen to start criminal investigations and tax. News that, of course, have not been accepted positively by alleg ed tax evaders, but they represent a point in favor for the community that each year sees disappear at least 110 billion euros of tax in Italy.
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