Efforts by the Generalitat in the fight against financial fraud yielded outstanding results last year. In Alicante, a notable rise in real estate activity accompanied a broader improvement in compliance. Tax administration officials from the Valencia Tax Office (ATV), a regional Ministry of Finance agency responsible for managing own and transferred taxes, reported these developments.
According to the ATV balance sheet, the team led by Sonia Díaz conducted 17,413 control, verification, and investigation actions across the province in 2022. These efforts generated 42,911,682 euros in revenue, a 23% increase from the previous period. This gain stands in contrast to the more modest regional growth of around 1%, where overall collections were directed at curbing tax evasion. The autonomous community reported total collections of 96.2 million euros, based on the same sources.
Rise in reported fraud in Alicante coincided with a surge in property transactions. The province’s total revenue climbed by more than 30%, notably in the Real Estate Transfer Tax and the Tax on Documents for Legal Transactions. When combined with each of these transactions, collections exceeded 1,138 million euros for the regional administration.
In this context, Díaz noted that both fraudulent and undisclosed sales require verification. Certain groups, including younger taxpayers, may benefit from discounted rates on these taxes. At the same time, some tax incentives were monitored, and instances of corporate sales were analyzed to determine whether they masked property transfers for tax purposes.
Valencia Tax Office launches a new personalized phone service
In this vein, the ATV director emphasized that the agency processes daily data on new deeds signed before notaries or filed with the land registry. This growing data stream makes it harder for information to be hidden from the Administration. The ongoing data exchange, strengthened by new technologies, allows faster data migrations and clearer cross-checks.
The total amount collected under the fraud-fighting program in the province reached 21.7 million euros through comprehensive verifications of compliance, for example. An additional 19.3 million came from inspections, and 672 self-assessment cases involved taxpayers affected by ATV actions, contributing another 1.8 million euros.
heritage
Although the biggest boost in Alicante stemmed from higher real estate activity, the key regional result in the fight against fraud lies in inheritance tax and donations. Inheritance-related payments contributed 42.3 million euros of the 96 million euros collected in this area. The Generalitat has been vigilant to verify that the requirements are met, including rules governing the continuation of family businesses. To qualify for deductions, heirs must remain involved in the company for the ownership transfer and for five years after.
On the other hand, monitoring property transfers added 36.2 million euros at the regional level, while wealth tax violations accounted for a further 16.5 million. The Generalitat is reviewing 121 open files related to fictitious address changes by taxpayers registered in other autonomous regions or abroad to avoid payment of this tax.
The anti-fraud effort also touched environmental taxes, contributing a small but meaningful amount of 61,102 euros.
More information available to the taxpayer
Alongside control actions, the Valencian Tax Office aims to simplify voluntary compliance and improve collection. One approach is to expand accessible tax information for citizens, mirroring the approach used by the national tax agency during income campaigns. The autonomous agency will also roll out a pre-appointment service to provide telephone assistance for managing ceded taxes, following a model similar to the state counterpart’s “We call you” program during income campaigns.