Europese Rekenkamer over de administratieve samenwerking inzake BTW (en)

Met dank overgenomen van Europese Rekenkamer i, gepubliceerd op woensdag 19 december 2007.

ECA/07/39

Luxembourg, 2007/12/19

Information note by the European Court of Auditors on Special Report No 8/2007 concerning administrative cooperation in the field of VAT [1]

Large scale value added tax evasion and fraud distort the functioning of the single market and affect the financial interests of the Member States and the financing of the Community budget.

Most VAT evasion is linked to undeclared economic activities (the "shadow economy"). However, significant VAT evasion also occurs as a side-effect of the VAT arrangements put in place when the single market was introduced in 1993. For intra-Community trade, goods supplied are exempted from VAT. The VAT due is then payable in the Member State where the goods arrive. Cooperation between Member States' authorities is therefore necessary in order to exchange the information needed to assess VAT correctly.

In 2004, new Community legislation (Council Regulation (EC) No 1798/2003) came into force to speed up and strengthen cross-border cooperation, mainly through clearer procedures, more comprehensive exchange of information and increased direct contacts between local tax offices.

The audit of the Court aimed to assess whether information exchanges between Member States take place in a timely and effective manner and are supported by sound procedures and adequate administrative structures.

The audit showed that information exchanges can help Member States to assess taxation correctly and to prevent and detect fraud. However, the Court found that:

  • - 
    insufficient use is made of the possibilities introduced in 2004 to enhance and speed up cooperation and not all Member States have set up adequate administrative structures and/or operational procedures for ensuring efficient cooperation;
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    half of the information exchange upon request does not take place within the timescales required by the legislation and notifications of late replies or interim replies are rarely given;
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    late replies occur in all Member States but their frequency varies considerably between Member States. There are sometimes significant differences between the number of requests which a Member State claims to have received and the number of requests other Member States claim to have sent it;
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    the framework for exchanges of information without prior request is not well defined and the information which is provided spontaneously is not always systematically exploited;
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    the late availability and lack of reliability of data in the current Value Added Information Exchange System (VIES) increase the risk of evasion and fraud not being detected.

In its recommendations, the Court stresses the need that Member States give higher priority to administrative cooperation, in respect of both the operational information exchanges and their administrative management. Furthermore, the Court recommends:

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    Member States to encourage more direct communication between local inspection staff as an effective way to speed up the exchange of information;
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    more efficient monitoring of exchanges of information between Member States to ensure that problems are swiftly identified and tackled and that each Member State provides effective assistance to other Member States;
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    that the procedures for exchanges of information without prior request are clarified and that information which is provided spontaneously should be systematically exploited by Member States;
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    action with regard to VIES to radically shorten the timescale for collecting and capturing data, to ensure that inaccurate data are swiftly corrected, to improve the functioning of the validation of VAT numbers, to enhance the possibilities for cross-checks, and to grant broader direct access to data to enable multilateral consultations;
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    that the introduction of harmonised rules for withdrawing VAT numbers from traders involved in fraudulent activities should be considered.

Special report No  8/2007:

http://eca.europa.eu/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/651518.PDF

European Court of Auditors

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[1] The sole purpose of this Information Note is to provide a summary. The Special Report, as adopted by the Court of Auditors, is available on its internet site ( http://www.eca.europa.eu ) and will shortly be published in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union.

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