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3mo ago

Audit Court Says France’s Tax Fraud Level Is Unknown, Urges Tax‑Gap Estimate by 2027

Despite expanded detection tools, recoveries from tax controls have stagnated over the past decade.

Rue Cambon, à Paris, où siège la Cour des comptes.
Selon la Cour des comptes, la France ne connaît toujours pas l'ampleur de la fraude fiscale.
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La Cour des comptes publie ce mardi un rapport sur la lutte contre la fraude fiscale.

Overview

  • The Cour des comptes’ report published on December 16 finds rights and penalties from controls at €20.1 billion in 2024 versus €21.2 billion in 2015, with actual sums recovered at €11.4 billion in 2025 compared with €12.2 billion in 2015.
  • The institution says no reliable measure of fraud exists and warns that published figures ranging from roughly €17 billion to €100 billion rely on fragile methods.
  • It calls on the DGFiP to deliver a robust, repeatable estimate of the overall tax gap by 2027 covering VAT, corporate tax and income tax, supported by stronger statistical capacity.
  • The court links the measurement failure to exclusive reliance on targeted audits without random sampling, which prevents extrapolation, and points to e‑invoicing and improved data matching as levers.
  • France lags several OECD peers that regularly publish tax-gap estimates, with only 30% of 58 administrations doing so in 2024, and the court notes sanctions have not become more frequent or severe than a decade ago.