Greece, Romania and Italy register highest VAT evasion

Romania (35.88%), Greece (29.2%) and Italy (25.9%) have registered the highest VAT tax evasion in the past years.

As a whole, the EU recorded revenue losses on VAT of € 147.1 billion. The figure is down by € 10.5 billion compared to the previous year with a reduction of the 0.9% gap, falling to 12.3% from 13.2%.

The EU countries where the VAT evasion is the lowest are Luxembourg (0.85%), Sweden (1.08%) and Croatia (1.15%).

The VAT gap has decreased in 22 Member States, with excellent results achieved by Bulgaria, Latvia, Cyprus and the Netherlands, each of which registered a decrease of more than 5 percentage points.

However the evasion increased in six Member States: Romania, Finland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Estonia and France.

“Member States – said the EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Pierre Moscovici – have improved the VAT collection throughout the EU, which must be recognized and appreciated, but a loss of 150 billion euros a year for national budgets remain unacceptable, especially when 50 of these billions end up in the pockets of criminals, fraudsters and probably even terrorists.”