Scholarly record

THE ANALYSIS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF TAX FRAUDS AND FIGHT AGAINST TAX FRAUDS IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

A. Suhanyiova, L. Suhanyi

Abstract

Tax fraud can be characterized as deliberate circumvention of rules to avoid paying taxes. Illegal avoidance of tax payments and their circumvention results in tax evasion. The main reason for the existence of tax evasion is the inconsistency between the state's interest (in maximizing the tax collection as much as possible) and the taxpayer's interest (in paying as low tax as possible). Tax frauds and their personal backgrounds, sophisticated forms, extensive structures and so on are always a step ahead of national efforts to detect and eliminate them. Even the most economically powerful countries in the world lack behind tax frauds and their ever-changing forms. Tax frauds and the fight against them is a real global challenge – not only for Slovakia and the EU (and its Member States) but also for the entire world. In Slovakia, tax frauds fall within the sphere of economic crimes, more precisely criminal tax offenses. The paper is focuses on the issue of tax crimes, which are also faced by Slovakia. In more detail, the paper examines and evaluates the development of tax frauds, focusing on its parts as broken down by the Criminal Code of the Slovak Republic, examines the history and number of detected criminal offenses and the solved crimes as well as the damage caused by these crimes. The paper focuses on the period of ten years (2007-2016). The quantitative research uses the officially available data of the Ministry of the Interior of the SR. The analysis of the secondary data was conducted using suitable mathematical and statistical methods. Based on the results of the research, the success rate of the implementation of the “Action Plan on Facing the Tax Fraud for the Years 2012 to 2016” (which was approved by the Government of the Slovak Republic in 2012 in order to support the fight against tax fraud) is being evaluated. Consequently, conclusions and recommendations are developed to address the issue of tax criminal offenses.

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