On combating VAT fraud – the effectiveness of cross-border cooperation when it comes to VAT fraud and its impact on the EU budget
A-10-2026-0213
Committee on Budgetary Control · Rapporteur: Ondřej Knotek
- Voted on · Adopted 357–274–31 · See the decision →
- Full procedure 2025/2121
Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.
Parliament's resolution on combating VAT fraud examines how well cross-border cooperation works and what VAT fraud costs the EU budget. It calls for a stronger EU anti-fraud architecture in the post-2027 multiannual financial framework, with better information exchange and funding for the EU's anti-fraud bodies.¶¶¶ It asks the Commission to lower the EUR 10 million threshold in the PIF Directive, to give the EPPO and OLAF access to VAT data, and to extend the Reverse Charge Mechanism beyond 2026.¶¶ It wants recovered assets from EPPO cases returned to the EU budget, stronger recovery reporting, and action on import VAT fraud, crypto-asset layering and risks in the EU Emissions Trading System Phase 2.¶¶¶
Committee position. The Committee on Budgetary Control proposes a resolution calling for a strengthened EU anti-fraud architecture in the post-2027 multiannual financial framework, better cross-border cooperation and data access for the EPPO and OLAF, and concrete legislative follow-up to the Commission's anti-fraud architecture review.¶¶¶
Key points
- Reaffirms calls for coordinated EU action against cross-border VAT fraud, stronger administrative, judicial and law enforcement cooperation, and a lower EUR 10 million threshold under Article 2 of the PIF Directive.¶
- Calls for the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework to include provisions, resources and instruments against informal economic activity and VAT fraud, and for anti-fraud requirements in its sectoral regulations.¶¶
- Warns that financing not linked to costs must not weaken traceability, and insists on a complete audit trail, beneficial ownership data and ex post verification accessible to the EPPO, OLAF, the European Court of Auditors and the discharge authority.¶
- Calls for synergies and possible consolidation of the EU anti-fraud architecture, a common governance framework, a unified reporting system, more digital tools and sufficient funding and staff for the EPPO, OLAF, Eurojust and Eurofisc.¶
- Welcomes the May 2026 general agreement giving the EPPO and OLAF access to the VAT Information Exchange System and the Central Electronic System of Payment Information, and asks the Commission for procedural guidelines respecting their distinct mandates.¶
- Calls for Eurofisc's transaction network analysis tool to be developed with AI-assisted pattern recognition, for Member States to provide transactional data on time, and for Eurofisc to seek suspension of VAT identification numbers where fraud is indicated.¶
- Calls on the Commission to enforce transposition of the beneficial ownership provisions of the sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, including on professional enablers, and to retain and where appropriate extend the Reverse Charge Mechanism beyond 2026.¶¶
- Calls for DAC8 crypto-asset reporting data to be accessible to Eurofisc, OLAF and the EPPO, for a report on its use by 2028, and for structured cooperation between anti-fraud bodies and the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism.¶¶
- Calls for a pre-emptive vulnerability assessment of VAT carousel fraud and financial crime risks in EU Emissions Trading System Phase 2, with safeguards built in before its launch and findings sent to Parliament and the Council.¶
- Calls for VAT in the Digital Age real-time reporting data to be interoperable with Eurofisc's tool and accessible to OLAF and the EPPO, with a Commission report to Parliament and the Council by 31 December 2031.¶
- Calls for the anti-fraud architecture review to produce a binding legislative package revising the OLAF, EPPO, Europol and Eurojust Regulations, Eurofisc governance and the PIF Directive, with structured reporting and performance indicators.¶¶
- Calls for a binding framework returning assets confiscated after EPPO investigations to the EU budget, for a legislative act on recovered amounts, and for OLAF to monitor and report annually on amounts actually recovered.¶¶¶
Who is affected
- Member States' tax, customs and judicial authorities, which are asked to coordinate, share data and act on VAT fraud.¶¶¶
- The EPPO, OLAF, Europol, Eurojust and Eurofisc, which would gain data access, tasks and funding under the proposals.¶¶¶
- Businesses and SMEs, which would face less administrative burden from digital reporting and risk exclusion from EU funds for fraud.¶
- Crypto-asset service providers, required to report crypto-asset transaction data to national tax authorities from 2026.¶
- Operators using Customs Procedure 42 and the Import One-Stop Shop, targeted by measures against import VAT fraud.¶
Figures and deadlines
- EUR 23 billion, or around 15 %, of the EU budget contributed by VAT in 2024.¶
- EUR 128 billion, the estimated EU-wide VAT compliance gap in the 2025 VAT Gap Report.¶
- EUR 12.5 billion to EUR 32.8 billion, the estimated annual cost of carousel fraud to the EU.
- EUR 45 billion, the revenue fraud amount in EPPO active investigations, over 67 % of estimated damage.¶
- EUR 10 million, the threshold under Article 2 of the PIF Directive that Parliament wants lowered.¶¶
- EUR 12 billion in fraudulent or suspicious VAT transactions identified by Eurofisc in 2024.¶
- Approximately EUR 5 billion in losses from EU Emissions Trading System carousel fraud between 2008 and 2009.¶
- July 2030, when e-invoicing and real-time digital reporting for intra-Community business-to-business transactions start under the VAT in the Digital Age package.¶
Legal basis: Articles 310(6) and 325(5) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and Article 4(3) of the Treaty on European Union.¶¶