“There is still a lot to do,” says UDI senator Nathalie Goulet

Tax fraud collections reached 15.2 billion euros in 2023, Gabriel Attal announced on Wednesday.

“Tax fraud, there is still a lot to do”, said Wednesday March 20 on franceinfo Nathalie Goulet, UDI senator from Orne, member of the Senate Finance Committee, after the announcement made by Gabriel Attal on tax fraud. The Prime Minister announced that tax fraud collections reached 15.2 billion euros in 2023, welcoming a record and “historical results”.

Nathalie Goulet points out in particular “dividend arbitrage, tax havens”. She cites the example “arrangements in certain very large companies which have been the subject of prosecution by the national financial prosecutor’s office”. But the senator, who produced a report on social fraud for Edouard Philippe when he was Prime Minister, assures that “When one seeks, one finds”.

“What gets results” on the hunt for fraud, “this is the desire that Gabriel Attal had already shown when he was Minister of Public Accounts”estimates Nathalie Goulet. “Tax fraud, social fraud, customs fraud, it’s fraud in public finances. There is not a fraud of the poor and a fraud of the rich. There is fraud in public finances.” She recalls that France pays “more than 820 billion euros” of social benefits per year. “If there is 10% fraud, that’s still a lot of money. And that’s exactly what Gabriel Attal is chasing: fraud.”

“We must first get the money from the pockets of the fraudsters”

On the “efforts to be made” in terms of tax fraud, Nathalie Goulet discusses the work “transpartisan” which she leads with Charlotte Le Duc, LFI deputy, “on a proposed law on dividend arbitrage fraud which costs three billion per year”. She denounces “a lot of manipulation by large companies using tax havens”as well as what is happening “in neighboring countries”recalling that there is “tax havens in Europe. All this still requires a lot of work”.

Nathalie Goulet also justifies her reaction to Bruno Le Maire’s announcements calling for savings on public finances and “cut a certain number of expenses” to come back “below 3% public deficit in 2027”. Senator UDI had denounced a “making fun of” of the Minister of the Economy who came “teach a lesson, from the height of 1.90 m, to reduce deficits”. “It’s completely scandalous. We must first get the money from the pockets of the fraudsters before getting the money from the pockets of the taxpayers, that’s obvious”annoys Nathalie Goulet, pointing out the fact that the minister “will reduce reimbursements”.

“The fraudsters continue to defraud. Meanwhile, honest people who have always paid their contributions will have fewer refunds.”

Nathalie Goulet, UDI senator

at franceinfo

The senator again recalls that the government “opened the floodgates of whatever it takes, with measures against Covid, for which we did no verification and now we find ourselves with fraud.” The centrist senator adds that “State subsidies were opened very widely”. Nathalie Goulet deplores the fact that control is being carried out “always a posteriori” when we should “still start to carry out a priori control”.