Resumen de Tackling vat fraud in europe: The international puzzle continues …*
Lisette van der Hel van Dijk, Menno Griffioen
The G20, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the EU have taken several initiatives to improve transparency and exchange of information to combat tax avoidance and tax evasion, including VAT fraud. A coordinated international approach seems to be the only solution to effectively fight VAT fraud within the EU. An analysis of the developments in international cooperation, however, shows that Member States (MS) seem to underuse other means of international cooperation that exist besides the exchange of information. The exchange of information on its turn seems to be mainly used within the national context. We conclude that due to a lack of coherence in the ‘control’ systems of MS and due to the fact that ‘coordination’ does not always mean ‘collaboration’, MS still seem to address this ‘European’ problem mainly on a national level which does not lead to a substantial decrease of the level of VAT fraud (including a lower tax gap) within the EU.
