VAT gap, reduced VAT rates and their impact on compliance costs for businesses and on consumers

Étude 30-08-2021

In November 2020, the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Tax Matters requested authorisation to draw up an implementation report on the implementation of the Sixth VAT Directive. Olivier Chastel (Renew Europe, Belgium) has been appointed as rapporteur for the report. To further support the Subcommittee on Tax Matters in its scrutiny work on the subject, the Ex-Post Evaluation Unit within the European Parliamentary Research Service has drawn up the present European implementation assessment. It focuses on the causes underlying the huge gap between the VAT projected and de facto collected, by looking at factors such as the Member States' disparate VAT systems and at the effects of reduced VAT rates on businesses and consumers.