The fight against tax fraud remained an important area for reform at the national level in 2019. This is one of the conclusions of the Commission’s annual report on the performance of Member States’ tax systems, published on Friday 31 January.
The report shows that Member States have taken or plan to take a series of measures to strengthen their legal frameworks and the enforcement of their tax laws, but also to modernise tax collection, improve access to information and encourage voluntary compliance.
This is particularly the case in Austria and the Czech Republic, which have carried out reforms to modernise their tax administrations, and in France, which has taken steps to simplify its procedures. In particular, Cyprus has intensified the fight against undeclared work by reforming its inspection mechanisms. As for Malta, the island has chosen to impose heavier fines for excise duty fraud on cigarettes and other tobacco products.
The report also refers to the increasing number of taxes on digital services that have been or are being introduced in France, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
To strengthen the fight against tax fraud and evasion, the report recommends that Member States emphasize cooperation by strengthening cross-border tools such as the automatic exchange of information, sharing of data analysis between countries, and joint audits. It also suggests that European countries strengthen their administrative capacity by modernising and digitising their systems.
Another recommendation: “promote trust, transparency, and a culture of tax compliance”. In particular, the report calls on Member States to raise taxpayers’ awareness of the value of tax revenue, to monitor and disclose the performance of tax administrations, and to strengthen the protection of whistleblowers at the national level.
See the report: https://bit.ly/2OnbuO8 (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)