The odyssey for those affected by the Fórum Filatelico case, the largest pyramid scheme along with Afinsa (as the Supreme Court considered it), has not yet come to an end. There are almost two decades of vicissitudes for his victims. There were almost 270,000 Spaniards who lost their savings by trusting in a company that promised fixed returns outside the market and much higher than those offered by the banks. After a lengthy judicial process, those affected by the case were able to recover 23.5% of what they invested. That is, they lost three out of every four euros.
Nearly twenty years after the outbreak of the case, the Treasury gave the scammed people partial joy. It was a year ago now. It allowed part of the property damage they suffered with their failed investment to be deducted in the 2022 income tax return. For some it was hundreds of euros and for others, thousands, depending on the investment they lost. The reason for the Tax Agency (AEAT) to open this possibility was that the courts closed the bankruptcy proceedings in July of last year. Many affected people, those who found out about the tax news, recorded the losses in their personal income tax.
Their joy did not last long. Weeks after closing the last Income Tax campaign, the Tax Agency delegations are opening tax checks to those affected by the Fórum Filatelico scam who deducted part of their losses. The certified letters are arriving at homes and, according to sources from the AEAT, they will progressively reach all taxpayers who recorded a capital loss in their personal income tax. The documentation that the Treasury requires is extensive: receipts of the payments collected (of the recovered investment), proof that proves the property losses, request for inclusion as a creditor of the philatelic company, as well as explanations of how the consigned value was obtained. in personal income tax and the concept of loss declaration.
Antonio Blázquez is 75 years old and has already received the certified letter from the Treasury. They ask him to justify a tax deduction of 2,900 euros and he has ten business days to respond to the treasury. “I don't know what to do, I'll have to hire an advisor,” he explains. Like him, he assures that there are several people around him, retirees who, during their working days, decided to invest in the philately company. Now, he regrets, he does not have the knowledge or the means to be able to respond to the information that the Tax Agency requests of them. “I don't have any documentation; "My wife keeps a paper from 2006, but I don't and I can't prove anything after so many years." He alone has some handwritten notes, which are not valid for the Tax Agency, of the money that he has recovered over the years.
Everything becomes complicated when it comes to requesting from the bank the supporting documents for the payments made by the Fórum Filatelico bankruptcy administration. It is one of the points of the requirements of the Tax Agency. These payments were made through Barclays. But more than a decade has passed and that entity is today CaixaBank. At the branch, those affected receive this response: "It is impossible to access the movements from so many years ago, the system only allows requests from 2015."
Ángel Jiménez is another person affected by the scam who has received the request from the Tax Agency. He entrusted 40 million pesetas in the eighties "because the director of the bank recommended it to me, even he had invested." “They offered returns of 7 and 8% and in the branch it was half that.” He promptly received payment “without any problem” from a company that did not generate any distrust. Until the intervention. This week he responded to the treasury's request with the document from the commercial court reflecting the debt that he had recognized and a copy of the contract that he signed with Fórum Filatelico. He has no more. “The Treasury should have all the information because it was a regulated procedure and, in addition, we were supervised,” he laments.
A spokesperson for the Tax Agency explains that the requirements that those scammed by Fórum Filatelico are receiving are common when a property loss is recorded. Officials reviewing the returns have questions and ask for more information. In any case, the tax administration assures that it will understand the cases of victims of the scam and that it will be sensitive.
To this end, the AEAT claims to be already “studying how to request the necessary information from third parties.” One option could be the bank. “We will look for the information wherever it is,” says the Treasury.
Although some creditors of Fórum Filatelico have already seen how the Tax Agency has closed the procedure, other affected parties could face a provisional liquidation, in which the appropriate appeals would be possible. They hope not to have to go to court.
“They haven't given us anything,” Jiménez complains. “Although the Treasury now returns part of it to us, it is not comparable to what we have lost,” he remarks. “Not even with what we have suffered these years,” he adds.
