While tax administrations must constantly adapt to internationalization and the dematerialization of exchanges, cooperation between neighbouring countries is becoming always more essential to deal with fraud.

In this context, since 2001, the territorial departments of the Directorate General of Public Finance (DGFiP) in north-eastern France have established close relations with the three neighbouring Landers of Germany to establish a procedure for requesting information directly through a network of correspondents.

Furthermore, in order to fight effectively against increasingly sophisticated cross-border tax evasion, these administrations have established Franco-German joint trainings on both sides of the border.

In 2013, two trainings in exchange of knowledge and experiences were conducted, one in Nancy, France, and the other in Trier, Germany.

Each of these trainings has gathered twenty participants from both countries. These meetings allowed them to discuss in the two languages about a dozen different topics each time. In each item, participants were able to measure the similarities and differences in their jurisdictions, particularly in terms of organization, procedures and allocation of rights and duties between the administration and the taxpayer.

Such trainings help to identify the standards and practices of the neighbour and, therefore, to raise awareness of the benefits and the essential nature of the exchange of information to more effectively fight the tax evasion.

This initiative is part of a collaborative strategy deployed at all levels, from local to international levels, between countries and between administrations, sharing the same objectives.

Precisely at the national level, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance, Public Accounts and Budget have signed on May 22, 2014 a circular document to better coordinate the judicial activities and the DGFiP services. Their goal is to strengthen jointly the fight against tax crime and organized financial and economic crime. To do this, they intend first to increase and facilitate exchanges of information between the tax authorities and the judiciary. Compliance and fiscal probity being strongly related, the ministers called for greater severity against fraudsters to restore public confidence in tax equity and in the public action efficiency.