The first “spot” inspections of industrial warehouses by the Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria), aimed at uncovering “the submerged economy,” will begin in the next few weeks.
The Agency will mount operations in different areas of Spain to identify industrial warehouses, which are apparently empty, but which are subject to high electricity bills. This is possible due to a new “obligation” on electricity companies to provide the Tax Agency with complete customer information including the names of all “owners” of a property and the amount of energy billed. Before the new regulation electricity companies were only required to supply billing information for individual cases on demand.
The Works Inspectors will also be looking for cases of “false self employment” and those claiming unemployment benefit and working illegally.
The trail of 500 and 200 euro notes will also be pursued by the Tax Agency as part of the fight against money laundering operations. In little more than three years the Agency has recovered 1.114 million euros by following the trail of large Spanish bank notes: 541 million in debts reclaimed from “people suspected of moving large amounts of cash;” 425 million was collected “voluntarily;” and the other 148 millions was reclaimed as a result of fraud proceedings.
