Ruler stroke on the fingers. For weeks now, the tax authorities have been waiting for French women and men to declare their 2021 emoluments with the idea of ​​being able to claim their due later – the income tax paid in 2022. The campaign of declaration began – with some problems, it must be admitted – this Thursday, April 7 and will continue until next May 19 for all taxpayers who cannot use electronic declaration. The others will have until May 24 or 31 and June 8, 2022 respectively, depending on their department of residence.

Among them, many are those who probably think that we pay too much tax in France. In 2021, then recalled RMC, France was still champion of compulsory levies and the question tends to come up regularly in the debate. Even more recently, three-quarters of taxpayers considered the tithe to be too high in the country, underlines Le Figaro. Of course, there are a variety of devices designed to allow everyone to reduce the weight of their tax base – and this is perhaps the root of the problem, according to political scientist Raul Magni-Berton – but this not always enough.

To pay less, some cheat.

Tax evasion, recalls the French administration on the public service website, corresponds to several realities. “You commit tax evasion if you deliberately use certain procedures to evade or attempt to evade taxes”, establishes the official platform from the outset. Three cases then stand out:

In this case, he is exposed to two types of sanctions, remind the competent authorities.

The first part of the sanctions is fiscal. Its nature varies according to the reality of the offence. Thus, a taxpayer who has not declared his income on time is exposed to an increase in his tax. “If the tax administration discovers the existence of an occult activity (that is to say not declared), your tax will be increased by 80%”, indeed specifies the site of the public service.

On the other hand, if the fraud consists in not declaring certain property or taxable income, the sanctions differ. The same applies to any undervaluation of the value of the assets subject to tax. In general, you should expect a tax increase if the declaration is “deliberately incomplete”. The punishment will depend on the nature of the taxpayer’s situation.

In addition, continues the platform, late payment interest may still be applied.

The second part of the sanctions is this time criminal. Again, different factors apply, continues the public service site. “If the tax administration detects fraud, it can initiate criminal proceedings after consulting the Tax Offenses Commission”, can we read on the platform, which specifies that any taxpayer therefore risks up to 500,000 euros in fines and 5 years imprisonment in addition to the previous increases mentioned.

In practice, these penalties can be increased if the taxpayer on trial is guilty of:

These five scenarios bring the two penalties mentioned above to a fine of 3,000,000 euros and a maximum of 7 years’ imprisonment.