Updates to EU cooperation on combating VAT fraud are watered down The EU’s ECOFIN finance ministers’ meeting on 5 May 2026 endorsed giving its fraud investigators long-demanded access to national VAT data. The measure now moves to the EU Parliament for sign-off probably in July.
European Court of Auditors: deferred import VAT regime exposed to VAT fraud The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has issued a report highlighting major VAT revenue losses due to weaknesses in member states’ import VAT rules. This is in the context of the EU VAT
2024: €13bn VAT fraud investigations European Public Prosecutor’s Office The European Public Prosecutor’s (EPPO) office 2024 report has revealed over half of EU budgetary losses it investigated were down to VAT fraud. The latest European Union VAT Gap is estimated at €89 billion for 2022.
EC withdraws stalled proposal to pivot to destination-based VAT for intra-community goods transactions On 11 February 2025, the European Commission adopted its 2025 Work Programme which included confirmation that it withdraw its proposed definitive VAT system reform. This 2019 proposal sought to tackle missing trader
Is €50 billion fraud in the EU VAT Gap an overestimate The European Commission’s annual VAT Gap estimate is due within the next few days. But is the calculation of missing VAT overestimating the amount of VAT fraud? Last year’s estimate, covering 2021, but the
Machine learning to spot likely VAT evasion across multiple data sources Tax authorities adopting AI has been underway for several years. But what about the UK? For over a decade, HMRC has used advanced analytics through its Connect system to identify potential cases of wider
Advocate General says Belgian joint and several liability oversteps EU VAT Directive On the 5th September, the EU Advocate General (AG) opinion on a Belgian VAT fraud case where a seller provides inadequate purchaser details on a VAT invoice to facilitate tax fraud. AG’s act
PSP’s – credit card, bank and online payment providers – to supply e-commerce payment details to shared EU CESOP database Member states have started to adopt the implementing regulation for imposing reporting and bookkeeping requirements on payment services providers (PSP’s) for their sellers’ activities. This clarifies
As the Definitive VAT System reforms go on hold, the EU has extend the option to use reverse charge to reduce compliance obligations and fight fraud EU Finance Minister agreed this month to extend the optional reverse charge until 31 December 2026. This is partially
