Fiscal fraud and evasion: Social responsibility perspective

• Autor(a) principal: David, Fátima
• Data de Publicação: 2006
• Outros Autores: Abreu, Rute
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10314/994
• topic: Fiscal fraud; Evasion; Social responsibility; Ethical behaviour

In a society in which all firms and citizens want to be balanced and in which exists respect for others, it would be reasonable to suppose that firms, in general, and citizens, in particular, paid their respective taxes, more motivated by a conscience of civic duty and social responsibility perspective, than, properly, for fear of the sanction of a non-execution order. Actually, fiscal fraud and evasion became a "current" practice for firms to decrease their payments to the State Budget in consequence of the no taxes payment. Fiscal fraud and evasion, usually, involves a deliberate act with the intention of obtaining an unauthorized benefit. Some examples of these actions in firms are: making or altering documents; purposely inaccurate financial reporting; improper handling or reporting of money transactions; authorizing or receiving compensation for goods not received or services not performed. In this sense, directors and all levels of management are responsible for preventing and detecting situations of fiscal fraud and evasion. Also, for establishing and maintaining formal internal controls that, inside of a sphere of social responsibility and functional segregation, provide security for the resources of the firms. Thus, directors and managers of firms must recognise risks and exposures inherent in their responsibility area, and be, particularly, attentive of fiscal fraud and evasion indicators. The authors defend that, it is urgently that the Governments reinforce the fight against fiscal fraud and evasion of the firms to provide the increase of their revenues through the implementation of formals internal preventative measures. This aim sets, on one hand, in the effectiveness of the combat measures of fraud and evasion. On other hand, it centres in the social responsibility of citizens and in generalization of its ethical behaviour. The success of these measures on the taxes services depends on the level of modern information and communication technologies. In this context, the progressive computerisation of taxes services remains a priority for the Government, because low automation levels limit the efficiency of the execution of taxes payments, of tax audits and the fight against fiscal fraud and evasion.