Over 70 per cent of tax fraud is committed by big companies and multi-millionaires, says Hacienda

President of GESTHA - Hacienda's technical department – Carlos Cruzado, says it is 'an error' to blame the average self-employed sole trader or small business for the majority of tax evasion.

According to Cruzado, where self-employed persons avoid tax, it is usually by not invoicing certain minor jobs, and small businesses tend to offset personal expenses against their business tax, but it is the large companies and people with multi-millions are the ones who consciously carry out large-scale fraud and corruption, such as the infamous Nóos case involving the King's son-in-law Iñaki Urdangarín.

“We need to change this generalised opinion that wrongly focuses tax fraud investigation on the small trader as the authors of Spain's black economy,” Cruzado announced this week in a conference in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, north-western Spain.

He explains that these fraudulent techniques on the part of sole traders and businesses with just a few employees are 'a matter of survival', despite 'the obvious negatives for them' – such as 'unfair competition, no pension, and lack of job security', which 'outweighs the positive effects' such as being able to survive.

Cruzado says the submerged economy in Spain accounts for between 20 and 25 per cent of the GNP and that to tackle that of sole traders and small businesses would need a 'complete restructure' of Hacienda, but that efforts should be centred on the likes of 'Luis Bárcenas and Urdangarín'.