Tougher penalties for tax and Social Security fraud

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. Political parties and unions are no longer excluded from the general criminal liability regime for legal entities, so they can be criminally punished in the cases provided by law.
2. The crime against the Public Treasury is reformed: regularizing your tax situation (acknowledging and paying the full debt on time) removes criminal liability, and a criminal case no longer by itself blocks the Administration from collecting the debt.
3. A new aggravated form of the crime against the Public Treasury is created, with prison terms of two to six years, for frauds over 600,000 euros, committed within a criminal organization or through shell companies or tax havens. The six-year maximum penalty raises the statute of limitations to ten years.
4. For crimes against Social Security, the amount triggering criminal liability drops to 50,000 euros and an aggravated form with two to six years in prison is added. A new specific crime for defrauding Social Security benefits is also created, punished with six months to three years in prison, or two to six years in serious cases.
5. The crime against workers' rights is reformed to punish those who employ workers on a large scale without registering them with Social Security or without work authorization, with prison terms of six months to six years.
6. A new crime punishes public authorities and officials who falsify the accounting or economic information of their public entity, with fines and disqualification, and one to four years in prison if economic harm is caused. Certificates related to Social Security and the Public Treasury are also excluded from the crime of certificate falsification.

Who it affects

• Taxpayers and companies: They can avoid criminal prosecution if they fully regularize their debt before the Administration or courts act; serious frauds over 600,000 euros carry higher penalties.
• Employers and Social Security debtors: The Social Security crime now applies from 50,000 euros, with aggravated penalties for organized schemes and fake companies.
• Political parties and unions: They can be held criminally liable as legal entities for unlawful acts by their representatives or administrators.
• Workers and law-abiding companies: Criminal punishment for those who compete unfairly by employing workers without Social Security registration or work permits.
• Public authorities and officials: New penalties for falsifying the economic information of public entities or passing on misleading information to third parties.

Words worth knowing

Prescripción (statute of limitations)

The maximum period to prosecute a crime. Once the time passes, the offender can no longer be punished.

Regularización tributaria (tax regularization)

Acknowledging and paying the full debt to the Tax Agency before an inspection or complaint begins.

Tipo agravado (aggravated offense)

A version of the crime with a harsher penalty because aggravating circumstances are present.

Paraíso fiscal (tax haven)

A territory where almost no taxes are paid, used to hide money or the people responsible.

Persona jurídica (legal entity)

An organization, such as a company or association, that can be criminally punished as if it were a person.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries