In 2011, staffing firms in France have avoided paying tax totalling €12 million, Le Parisien reports. This comes after the anti-fraud team of the URSAFF raided firms and overall identified unpaid social security contributions of up to €15.4 million in 2011, including 12 million in one single instance at two staffing firms.

The URSAFF is an organisation for the payment of social security and family benefit contributions which collects such contributions in France. It said that the majority of the unpaid tax it discovered was part of a large-scale scam led by staffing firms.

In this case two temporary employment agencies near Paris had failed to report employment activities at a construction site to the URSAFF and managed to avoid paying tax for the workers they had employed.

The URSAFF uncovered the case in February 2011 and said that the construction industry was indeed the sector with the highest rate off illegal employment at 43%. This is followed by the commerce industry (31%) and catering (21%). It also warned that tax fraud in France had gone up considerably in recent years.