Economic crime report 2004 - Ekobrottsmyndigheten

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and employers concerning registration and tax return matters. The tax authorities should normally be in charge of carrying out any measures aimed at preventing tax offences by individuals or businesses. EBM’s skills and resources should concentrate on analysis and development of legislative proposals and systematic solutions, informational initiatives directed toward groups of businesses or taxpayers, contacts with interest organizations, etc. 10.4 CONTACT AND INFORMATION Contact and cooperation with other agencies and organizations expanded steadily in 2003. The initiative often came from trade organizations in sectors that have problems with undeclared work and undisclosed income. Contacts were forged at both the national and regional level. Following are a few concrete types of cooperation. • Crime prevention activities with individual agencies or municipalities • Informational initiatives about economic crime and prevention efforts by agencies at meetings with groups from particular sectors, such as the Transport Workers’ Union, the Swedish Movers Federation (SMF), the Swedish Flower Wholesalers’ Association, regional representatives of the construction industry, or local representatives in the case of large projects • Closer cooperation on the issue of undeclared work in the restaurant sector with agencies concerned and representatives of the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Employers’ Association, the Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union, and organizations of musicians and staffing companies • General cooperation and concrete activities with local chapters of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation Information is a key tool in crime prevention efforts, a fact that EBM takes into consideration in all of its activities. The mass media represent an import target in that respect, as well as various interest groups such as trade organizations, employer’s associations and schools. The media are vital to informing the general public about economic crime and the effort to combat it. The agencies concerned have ambitious goals with respect to being available to the media and serving as sources of information when reporters have questions about economic crime. 80
Economic crime, and therefore EBM’s sphere of activity, was in the media spotlight during 2003. The publicity survey that the agency conducted among the major morning newspapers in the first half of 2003 reflected that interest. The analysis revealed that the press covered economic crime twice as much in 2003 as the year before. Other efforts to raise awareness about crime prevention activities included participation at seminars, information offerings for schoolchildren and students, and meetings with agencies, organizations and other interested parties in the field. One of the informational brochures that EBM put together was aimed at newly started small businesses and dealt with false accounting An economic crime symposium arranged in November by EBM and Jönköping International Business School attracted some 20 leading European researchers in addition to the cooperating agencies. In the autumn of 2003, EBM conducted a survey on the attitudes of Swedes toward economic crime. More than half of the interviewees said that such offences are fairly widespread in Sweden. Over one-third said that it was very widespread. The figures are somewhat higher than a similar 2001 survey. Almost half of those questioned said that they had contact with at least one person who did not declare their income over the past year or with someone who hired such workers. That was particularly true of men, young people with college educations and high-income earners. A total of 82.9% of the respondents felt that society and politicians were not doing enough to combat economic crime. The youngest age group (18- 24) deviated from the consensus. Important to keep in mind is that SKV noted in its periodic attitude surveys that young people grew more accepting of undeclared work from 1998 to 2001. In addition, a series of similar studies commissioned by EBM have shown that young people today are more tolerant of undeclared work and economic crime than previous generations. SKV subsequently carried out an informational drive aimed at 16-20 year olds. In order to gauge the impact of the campaign, a preliminary survey was conducted in the spring of 2002. Following a year of activities, a new study in the spring of 2003 indicated that fewer young people thought that undeclared work was legitimate and more repudiated the idea. Now that the informational effort has proceeded for another year, the results of a third survey are in the process of compilation. Preliminary findings 81
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ECONOMIC CRIME REPORT Report no. 20
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Economic Crime Report
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Government Swedish Ministry of Just
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Economic Crime and Efforts to Comba
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Economic Crime - Current Status and
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Economic Consequences of Economic C
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Interagency Cooperation Measures Th
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Undeclared Work • Employers who h
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A CLOSER LOOK AT UNDECLARED WORK, V
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VAT Fraud There is always a risk th
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Trends Over the Next Three Years Fo
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Concluding Remarks The purpose of t
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Contents 1. Introduction 6 2. Curre
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10.5 NATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION PROJ
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Table 31 Number of decisions by oth
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2. Current Status of Economic Crime
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detected offences are documented, a
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sentative of both commercial goods
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mentary evidence for verifying actu
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SKV put together documentation to l
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that a certain volume of uncollecte
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Table 3 Estimated tax error linked
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The minimum tax rates on alcohol ar
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• Businesses, such as: - Tax plan
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According to the court of appeal, t
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loan prohibition, the Accounting Ac
Page 55 and 56: 4. It has a definite focus, though
Page 57: “A number of groups are engaged i
Page 60 and 61: Council and its task force have con
Page 62 and 63: Special joint consultation groups f
Page 64 and 65: 4. Intelligence and Monitoring Oper
Page 66 and 67: The total money involved in transac
Page 68 and 69: Intelligence Operations of Tax Crim
Page 70 and 71: Graph 13 Number of audits, 2000-200
Page 72 and 73: 2002 to 2003. The sums involved in
Page 74 and 75: Money Laundering, etc. A newly esta
Page 76 and 77: Since the project started on 1 Apri
Page 78 and 79: Manipulated cash registers are the
Page 80 and 81: professional criminals to one degre
Page 82 and 83: official figures. In the autumn of
Page 84 and 85: ookkeeping offences continued to ac
Page 86 and 87: Graph 25b Total number of reports o
Page 88 and 89: Graph 26 Cases received, 1998-2003
Page 90 and 91: Table 30 Number of decisions by EBM
Page 92 and 93: Graph 34 Average throughput time fo
Page 94 and 95: 6.5 TAX CRIME UNITS Expansion of ta
Page 96 and 97: Graph 38 Trading prohibitions, 1998
Page 98 and 99: 9. Attachment, Collection, etc. The
Page 100 and 101: Graph 43 Unpaid taxes and fees (SEK
Page 102 and 103: Since a coordinated effort to recov
Page 104 and 105: According to the proposals, the age
Page 108 and 109: suggest that attitudes are continui
Page 110 and 111: 84 • a regional informational pro
Page 112 and 113: 12. International Contact and Coope
Page 114 and 115: 13. Skills and Methods Development
Page 116 and 117: Since the autumn of 2002, EBM has c
Page 118 and 119: nesses under their control, grant l
Page 120 and 121: social insurance offices could prev
Page 122 and 123: 15 Problem Areas and Future Threats
Page 124 and 125: • higher unemployment • distort
Page 126 and 127: 15.3 UNDECLARED WORK IN CASH SECTOR
Page 128 and 129: EBM’s pilot project on measures f
Page 130 and 131: 15.5 AGENTS WHO AID ECONOMIC CRIME
Page 132 and 133: ied out indicate that most transact
Page 134 and 135: Appendix 1 CHANGES PROPOSED BY SAME
Page 136 and 137: SKV • SKV should have limited aut
Page 138 and 139: Transport Workers’ Union VAT Info
Page 140: Reported economic crimes have incre
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Economic crime report 2004 - Ekobrottsmyndigheten

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