The role of judicial cooperation in the fight against tax evasion and tax avoidance in the CEMAC zone

B-Tax Evasion

A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (physical or corporate entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures.^23(*) Furthermore, it can also be defined as a pecuniary levy, having an obligatory character by virtue of the prerogative of public powers, on definite basis in other to ensure the funding public charges of the central State, regional and local authorities as well as public establishments.

Legally, tax was defined by the French Cour de Cassation as a levy practiced by way of authority by the State, provinces and municipalities on the incomes of persons who live in their territory or have interests therein to be assigned for public interest utility.^24(*) Some other definitions have been proposed by some of the best authors of French doctrine such as Gaston Jèze who refers to tax as a pecuniary benefit required from individuals by way of authority on final basis without any retribution in other to cover public charges.^25(*) Recovery of taxes is not an easy ball game reason being that, it is an exercise subject to a lot of resistance by taxpayers who do not hesitate to device means aimed at avoiding and evading the said taxes.

Evasion is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as the act of intentionally avoiding doing something that you have a duty or responsibility to do.^26(*)

Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxpayer's tax liability, and it includes dishonest tax reporting, such as declaring less income, profits or gains than the amounts actually earned, or overstating deductions.^27(*) The, OECD goes in the same line by referring to tax evasion as any action of the taxpayer aimed at deliberately reducing his liability tax through the intentional production of false statements, fake documents etc. which is generally punishable under criminal law.^28(*) To this effect, section M107 of the Cameroon's general tax code provides that:

«Without prejudice to the tax penalties in force, a prison term of from 1 (one) to 5 (five) years or a fine of from five hundred thousand (500,000) francs to five million (5,000,000) francs or both such fine and imprisonment shall be inflicted upon whoever...evades fraudulently or attempts to evade fraudulently the issue, payment, total or partial repayment of the taxes and duties referred to in the General Tax Code;...Conceals a part of the taxable amount;...Obtains repayment of VAT credits through fraudulent means.»^29(*)

The aforementioned fraudulent maneuvers of evading taxes are also punishable by section P-1024 and P-1025 of the Gabon's «livre des procédures fiscales du Code Général des Impôts»^30(*) respectively. It is worthwhile noticing that, the term fraude fiscale is used in French-Speaking countries to refer to the concept of tax evasion, while évasion fiscale is used to refer to the concept of tax avoidance.^31(*)

* ²³Charles E. McLure, Jr. "Taxation". Britannica. Retrieved 3^th March 2015

* ²⁴ Cass. 30 November 1950 - Pas. 1951 - Tome I - p. 191.

* ²⁵ Gaston Jèze,Cours de finances publiques : 1934-1935 : théories générales sur les phénomènes financiers, Librairie générale de droit & de jurisprudence, Paris, 1935, page 39.

* ²⁶ https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/evasion accesed on 10/11/21

* ²⁷Tax Evasion & Whistleblowers: Curious Policy or Durable Strategy? Tax Law: International & Comparative Tax eJournal. Accessed 10/11/2021.

* ²⁸ https://www.oecd.org/ctp/glossaryoftaxterms.htm accessed on 16/08/2021.

* ²⁹ Section M108 of the same code goes further by précising the penalties referred to in section M107 shall also apply to person who «fails to make or ensure the making of entries, or abets the making of inaccurate or fake entries into the journals and balance sheet books provided for by the Commercial Code, or into documents serving as such, as well as any person convinced of having drawn up or abetted the drawing of false balance sheets;...Produces fake documents or documents recognized to be inaccurate in order to obtain tax relief or reimbursement of any kind.

* ³⁰« l'article P-1024 rend passible d'un emprisonnement de quinze  (15) jours à cinq (5) ans ou d'une amende de cinq cents mille (500 000) F CFA à cinq millions (5 000 000) F CFA ou de l'une de ces peines seulement quiconque : se soustrait frauduleusement ou tente de soustraire frauduleusement à l'établissement, au paiement, aureversement total ou partiel des impôts, droits et taxes visés dans le CGI ; dissimule une partie des sommes sujettes à impôt ; organise son insolvabilité, ou fait obstacle au recouvrement de l'impôt.  L'article P-1025 du CGI quant à lui, punit également des mêmes peines quiconque : Omet de passer ou de faire passer les écritures, ou fait passer des écritures inexactes et fictives dans les  livres , journaux et inventaires  prévus par les actes uniformes OHADA, ou dans les documents qui  en tiennent lieu, ainsi que toute personne qui est convaincue d'avoir établi ou aidé à établir de faux bilans ;...Produit des pièces fausses ou reconnues  inexactes  en vue d'obtenir, en matière d'impôts et taxes, des dégrèvements  ou remboursements  de quelle que  nature que ce soit. »

* ³¹Julie ROGERS-GLABUSH, IBFD International tax glossary,IBFD, Amsterdam, 2009, Page 196.