Major VAT gap study directed by CASE has been released today by the EC

The study on the VAT (value added tax) gap was prepared within the project “Study to quantify and analyze the VAT gap in the EU-27 Member States” and conducted for the European Commission (DG TAXUD).
The study presents updated estimates of the difference between the liabilities and the amount of VAT actually collected by the national authorities of 26 EU Member States. According to the estimations, the total VAT gap for the 26 EU countries amounted to approximately 193 billion EUR in 2011. Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom contributed to over half of the total VAT gap in absolute terms, whereas the countries with the largest gaps relative to their GDPs were Romania, Latvia, Greece and Lithuania. The study is likely to spur a debate on current tax enforcement within the EU.

More information and the full report is available on the DG TAXUD website.