The new Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen (VDL) has announced the three main priorities for the next five years will be sustainability, digitalisation and the economy…
European Commission
Mrs Von Der Leyen announces her new cabinet of Commissioners with an ambitious tax agenda
The new Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen (VDL) has announced the three main priorities for the next five years will be sustainability, digitalisation and the economy.
The former Italian Prime Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, was appointed as the Commissioner for taxation (subject to confirmation by the Parliament, in principle by the end of next month (23rd), thus succeeding the incumbent Pierre Moscovici. VDL announced the following priorities for Gentiloni’s mandate as the tax Commissioner:
- Anti-avoidance with emphasis on VAT and administrative cooperation
- Abandoning unanimity on tax decision making and moving to qualified majority voting (QMV)
Link: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/interim/commissioners-designate
Commission study on VAT Gap finds EU lost EUR 137 billion VAT revenue in 2017
The European Commission has published latest VAT Gap figures. They show that in 2017, EU countries lost EUR 137 billion in VAT revenues.
The largest VAT gaps were in Romania (36%), Greece (34%) and Lithuania (25%). The smallest gaps of just 1% of VAT revenues were to be found in Sweden, Luxembourg and Cyprus.
In absolute terms, the highest VAT gap was in Italy, with around EUR 33,5 billion.
Link: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_19_5511
New update of EU VAT Cross-Border Rulings list – 15 July 2019
European Parliament
JURI and ECON hearings with Finnish Presidency – Presidency outlines its priorities for tax
At the ECON hearing, the Finnish minister of finance explained to the MEPs which tax files the Presidency would aim to advance.
According to the minister, the Presidency will:
- Continue work on OECD negotiations for international tax reform
- Seek progress on VAT definitive regime, and try to take out e-commerce elements from the VAT definitive regime proposal
- Progress on other VAT files like data collection from payment services providers, VAT for SMEs and VAT for defence industry
- Advance C(C)CTB
- Facilitate discussions on the financial transaction tax (FTT)
- Launch the debate on energy taxation.
CJEU – Rulings
C‑71/18: VAT exemption for supply of buildings intended for demolition
Others
The Guardian Opinion: Is it time to switch income tax with a sales tax?
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/sep/05/is-it-time-to-switch-income-tax-with-a-sales-tax
European Commission publishes statistics on VAT Mini One Stop Shop (MOSS)
Link: https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/sites/taxation/files/moss-statistics-2019.pdf
European Court of Auditors
New report from EU Auditors highlights problems in VAT e-commerce collection
E-commerce: many of the challenges of collecting VAT and customs duties remain to be resolved
