“In difficult economic times like these, public finances need robust tax revenues to support both our public services and the investment mountain for the green and digital transitions and energy security. At the same time, citizens are demanding tax fairness and strong action against fraud and tax evasion".
This was stated by the EU Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, presenting the new package of EU initiatives to align the tax system with the digital world and improve and digitize VAT for businesses.
The European Commission launches e-invoicing for businesses
operating across national borders in the EU.
The new reporting system introduces real-time digital communication for VAT purposes to intensify the fight against fraud, especially the so-called 'carousel'.
The move to e-invoicing will
help reduce VAT fraud by up to €11 billion a year
and cut administrative and compliance costs for European businesses by more than €4.1 billion a year , according to EU estimates
in the next ten years.
In 2020, EU countries lost 93 billion euros in VAT revenue
, a quarter of which can be directly attributed to fraud.
"These losses are clearly harmful to public finances", highlights Brussels, indicating that the actions proposed today, such as electronic invoicing, "will help Member States collect up to 18 billion more VAT revenues a year".
The EU Commission is also launching
new tax transparency rules
for all cryptocurrency providers: regardless of their size or location, they will be obliged to report all transactions of customers residing in the EU.
"Tax authorities currently lack the necessary information to monitor proceeds obtained using crypto-assets, which can easily be traded across borders. This severely limits their ability to ensure that taxes are actually paid" leading "European citizens" to losing "important tax revenues", highlights Brussels.
Italy is first in the EU in absolute terms for the non-collection of VAT
: in 2020 the gap was 26.2 billion (20.8%).
Followed by France with 14 billion in absolute value (8%), and Germany with 11.1 billion, equal to 4.8%.
In percentage terms, Italy is preceded by Malta (24.1%) and Romania (35.7%).
In 2019, the difference between the VAT collected and the VAT expected in Italy was 31.08 billion (in absolute terms the highest value) equal to 21.8%.