Easy solution
Abolish VAT. No VAT -> no VAT fraud.
Huge VAT fraud tab eclipses EU's age-old scams
Carousel and VAT fraud is far outstripping Europeans' traditional financial fiddles on EU funds, prompting MEPs to call on the European Commission to overhaul its anti-fraud operation to combat the problem. MEPs yesterday voted to adopt an “own initiative” report on the commission’s 2005 and 2006 reports on its fight against …
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Wednesday 20th February 2008 08:35 GMT Anonymous Coward
VAT = fraud
Is there any way you can actually justify VAT ?
Let's invent a tax we can apply to everything we've already taxed, and let's say it applies outside our jurisdiction, and lets apply it to carriage as well as the goods........
The really criminals are HMRC and the bastards in government.
</rant>
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Wednesday 20th February 2008 09:13 GMT Anonymous Coward
15 trillion economy, so 0.006%?
That sounds quite good, 6e-5 as a fraction of the whole economy. But wouldn't it be better if business to business orders had no vat on them, not just between countries but also inside them?
Would simplify my TTC return a hell of a lot.
And wouldn't it be nice if I had to complete only 1 vat return in 1 country rather than 1 vat return in each country I do more than 100k of business with? The simpler it is the less opportunities for fraud. It's the damn complexity of it all that creates the opportunity.
And quite frankly, I am fed up with accountants and tax men deciding policy in this area, with their charge backs and intra vat watnots. Hands up who expects a bunch of accountants and tax men to put themselves out of a job?? Not me.
Someone with a grip on the matter and no vested interest should simplify it.
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Wednesday 20th February 2008 09:31 GMT Anonymous Coward
No surprise
When will these overpaid tossers realise that the more complex you make a tax system, the more loopholes there will be? And that each attempt to plug a loophole will create three more? A simple point-of-sale sales tax works much better, and doesn't require an army of civil servants to manage it. Which, of course, explains why the european commission doesn't like it.
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Wednesday 20th February 2008 09:42 GMT Maverick
@ all posters
VAT is a very simple, easy tax which has been made hideously complicated by the civil servants in all the countries (but especially in UK) as they try to apply it in more and more convoluted ways. Yes politicians have to vote the laws in but I'd bet most of the time there are very few MPs in the house when this happens - no front page headlines to be won in passing VAT laws ;) Of course the accountants and lawyers encourage this gravy train.
The best thing about VAT is that it is hard to avoid and the penalties are nasty, vs. income tax which whole sections of our society completely avoid (legally in few cases, but if not for the masses there is very little risk of being caught)
oh, & BTW intrastat is nothing to do with VAT - it's there to measure the balance of payments (and keep civil servants in jobs of course = the main industry of this miserable excuse for a government)
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Wednesday 20th February 2008 10:23 GMT Anonymous Coward
@Maverick
STOP : VAT is the worse tax there is with no progressive element to it at all. From its initial introduction as a "temporary" tax at 2.5% its grown to a massive 17.5%. It should be repealed and replaced with something else.
As for the "masses" avoiding income tax .. well thats a shock mate, wheres your facts to back it up ? I certainly get a wodge taken out monthly, as do most of the people I know. Maybe you are referring to the cash in hand crowd, or maybe you are actually pointing out where the biggest loses of taxable income occur. In the tax avoidance industry that lets rich gits get richer.
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Wednesday 20th February 2008 14:30 GMT Martin
VAT
VAT isn't actually a tax on consumers (although it appears as such); it is a tax on the 'Value added' by companies all the way up the supply chain.
Firms pay VAT (to the govt) on their sales, but claim back on their purchases. As such, VAT is paid by each firm on the increase in price of the goods that pass through their hands. Regressive? Maybe. Fair? Possibly ('the rich' as referred to by many posters can't avoid VAT). A pain in the arse to administrate? Yes.
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Friday 22nd February 2008 21:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
Clean Pair of Hands, er, Heels
It's funny, but when you type "MEPs Fraud" into BBC the first two stories start:
"MEP fraud claims to face scrutiny: The EU's anti-fraud office is to look at an internal report amid claims that it has uncovered embezzlement by MEPs.
"MEPs rush to show clean accounts: The European Parliament has never had a great reputation for financial probity. But, if the claims about a report sitting in a locked room in the basement of the parliament are true, it may be that some members are making explanations to the police rather than to their electorate over the next few months. "
Shurely shome mishtake?
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
