If you use one of the many free VPNs that exist to bypass the regional block and watch movies and series that are available in countries other than ours, we have bad news for you: the Treasury doesn’t want you to do it.
Setting up a VPN is very simple, and more so from the very options that MIUI offers us on our Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO terminals. But this collides head-on with a new measure approved by the Tax Agency (AEAT): observe the location of citizens’ mobile phones. A legitimate fiscal weapon.
The Treasury can spy on your geolocation from your mobile (and it’s legal)
Is the Treasury spying on us? Yes, and it is legal, since they are taking advantage of the Google rate. According to the Tax Law on Certain Digital Services, in force since January 2021, calculating the use and consumption of certain services of some technological giants implies knowing the IP of the mobile, to be able to track and trace by geolocation and thus tax accordingly.
“It will be presumed that a certain device of a user is in the place that is determined according to the IP address of the same, unless it can be concluded that said place is a different one through the use of other means of proof admissible in law, in particular , the use of other geolocation instruments”, says this law that has already entered into force.
Although this measure is not convincing everyone —since it proposes more interested uses than the root purpose—, it seems that there is no other option. It is the cost of prosecuting tax fraud in an increasingly digitized world.
And why should it affect us that a fight over taxes becomes a magnifying glass to closely monitor everything we do? Because every time you order food through Just Eat, every time you make a purchase on Amazon or every time you validate a trip from your mobile, you are transmitting information about tax operations, capital to control corporate profit.
And trying to avoid it through a VPN can, at least in theory, pose an attempt to evade responsibility and hide tax information. Yes, we are talking about digital information that could ultimately be requested from a company. And it is not about fraud or tax evasion, but there is still a presumption of crime. Specifically, and according to section III of article 111 of the CFF, that is, It can be considered a crime against anyone who hides, alters or destroys, totally or partially, the accounting systems and records.as well as the documentation related to the respective seats, which according to the tax laws is required to carry.