EU VAT reform, hit or miss1

• EU Governance and Politics, Financial Policy and International Markets, Op-ed
• 02/08/2018

On the 4th of October 2017, the EU released its proposals for the change of the value added tax (VAT) rules, which included key reforms for cross-border trade between businesses in Member States. The initiative promised to decrease the EU VAT gap, in other words, the difference between expected VAT revenues and actual member state collections. While broad questions remain about the new system, the EU is convinced that the VAT fraud is to be reduced by 80% by 2022 thanks to the proposed reform.