EC in new drive to stamp out tax evasion
Faced with evasion of excise taxes amounting (in 1996) to €4.8bn, the European Commission is acting to improve collaboration between the tax authorities of the 15 EU member states.
Link: EC clamps down on tax evasion
The EC is asking governments to speed up information flows, establish clearer and more binding rules on cooperation, provide more information on a routine, automatic basis and enhance systems for the transmission of information.
The regulation extends last year’s agreement on a computerised system to monitor movements of excisable goods in bond between traders under duty-suspension arrangements. Brussels said the current system was unable to cope with increasing levels of tax evasion fraud, particularly for alcohol and tobacco.
Among other things the new regulation will allow direct contacts between local offices, set time limits for compliance with information requests and storage, allow officials from one country to carry out investigations in another and establish procedures for simultaneous audits by officials from two or more member states.