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Spain to hunt tax dodgers via Twitter

Alex Dunham
Alex Dunham - [email protected]
Spain to hunt tax dodgers via Twitter
Spanish tax boss Cristobal Montoro has already confirmed that 100,000 ‘inspections’ were carried out in 2014Photo: Pierre Philippe Marcou/AFP

Spain's main tax collecting body is planning to use information available through social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to spy on people it believes are involved in financial fraud.

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Spain’s Inland Revenue agency will use the sites to discover further information relating to alleged tax dodgers and their malpractices. 
 
According to online daily Cinco Dias, the organization headed by Spain’s Minister of Finance and Public Administration will only access data made public by social network users. 
 
Using algorithms, Hacienda – as the agency is known in Spanish – will add extra details to taxpayers’ case files such as online transactions and who they’re in contact with via the internet. 
 
Montoro has already confirmed that 100,000 ‘inspections’ were carried out in 2014, 6.8 percent more than the previous year. 
 
The tax body is likely to publish its new set of digital footprint regulations in the following week, Cinco Dias reported. 
 
Whistleblower Herve Falciani’s recent revelations about how banking giant HSBC helped wealthy clients squirrel away funds in secret accounts to evade taxes could have spurred Hacienda to tighten its grip on taxpayers.
 
Information shared by Spain´s digital newspaper El Confidencial show the extent to which some wealthy Spaniards were helped by international banking giant HSBC to squirrel away funds in secret accounts to evade taxes.
 
An estimated €1.8 billion ($2.8 billion) was concealed by Spanish citizens in Swiss bank accounts between 2006 and 2007.

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