Protection of EU financial interest on customs and VAT: cooperation of national tax and customs authorities to prevent fraud

Studiu 08-04-2019

The losses from customs and VAT fraud impact the Member States’ contributions to the EU budget. This study aims to describe the current levels of fraud and map and analyse the effectiveness of the EU cooperation measures in tackling fraud. The first conclusion is that the lack of methodology for measuring customs gap or its elements, such as losses from customs fraud, prevents tailored risk based policy responses. As a second conclusion, current cooperation channels are underused, but recent developments have been positive and new proposals are expected to strengthen the joint fight against fraud.