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Tax Policy

The Commission has published the latest annual Taxation trends report. The report shows that revenues from consumption taxes (including VAT and excise duties) for the EU-28 increased as a percentage of GDP in 2015. However, the share of consumption taxes out of total revenue increased only slightly to 28.7% compared to 28.5% in 2014. The report also demonstrates that the average top corporate tax rate reduced from 22.5% to 21.9% between 2016 and 2017. The Taxation trends report provides detailed statistical and economic analysis of the tax systems of the 28 EU Member States, as well as Iceland and Norway. The report also includes country chapters where, for each country, key tax indicators are provided on tax revenues as a percentage of GDP for the years ranging from 2003 to 2015. These are supplemented by tables presenting the latest tax reforms in each country.

The UK government has updated its plans to prevent VAT evasion committed by non-compliant, non-EU businesses that sell goods online in the UK and will now include the “Fulfilment House Due Diligence Scheme” (FHDDS), which will target fulfilment houses in an effort to get them to monitor their customers VAT compliance, in its early-autumn Finance Bill. 

The European Commission has published a taxation paper on tax certainty. The paper analyses main sources of tax uncertainty, reviews the economic and empirical literature on the ...

The European Commission has published its long-anticipated White Paper on the Future of the EU 27 by 2025. The paper was launched in view of the Rome Summit on 25 March...

The next meeting of the OECD Global Forum on VAT will take place on 12-14 April in Paris. This time, the discussions will focus on the policy and ...

The UK House of Commons has published a briefing on the potential implications of Brexit for the applicability of EU tax rules in the UK. ..

A recent EU report (https://static.rasset.ie/documents/news/onlineshopping.pdf) has highlighted that shoppers are still experiencing discrimination because of their nationality and country of residence. The report found that ...

The European Commission has published the summary of responses to its consultation on reduced VAT rates for electronically supplied publications (see FEE Tax Policy Update from 5 August for...

The EU Finance Ministers have made a number of tax related decisions during their latest ECOFIN meeting. Of particular interest, the Ministers adopted their conclusions on the ...