VAT: European Commission welcomes adoption of new tools to combat fraud in the EU

The Commission has welcomed the political agreement reached by EU Member States today on new tools to close loopholes in the EU's Value Added Tax (VAT) system.

The Commission has welcomed the political agreement reached by EU Member States today on new tools to close loopholes in the EU's Value Added Tax (VAT) system. These inconsistencies can lead to large-scale VAT fraud causing losses of €50 billion for national budgets of EU Member States each year.

Proposed by the Commission in November 2017, the new measures aim to build trust between Member States so that they can exchange more information and boost cooperation between national tax authorities and law enforcement authorities. Once in force, Member States will be able to exchange more relevant information and to cooperate more closely in the fight against criminal organisations, including terrorists.

Read the press release
Q&A on the new tools to combat VAT fraud
Action Plan on VAT – Towards a single EU VAT area