European Commission targets VAT fraud with CESOP – FinTech Futures

The European Commission (EC) has introduced new rules for EU member states to combat VAT fraud. The rules require that EU payment service providers share transactional data to tackle e-commerce VAT fraud. The aim is to address the VAT gap, which is the difference between the amount of VAT that could be collected and the amount that is actually collected. The EC’s latest EU VAT Gap report revealed that there was a loss of €61 billion in VAT in 2021, or 5.3% of the expected VAT Total Tax Liability (VTTL). Although the gap is slowly decreasing due to the evolution of digital tax and invoicing systems, VAT fraud remains a prevalent issue. To tackle the problem, the EC launched Operation Admiral, which filed charges against 12 individuals and 15 companies accused of setting up a criminal organization involved in tax fraud, money laundering, and corruption.