European Commission projects a 17% increase of the VAT gap in 2020
On September 10th the European Commission published its annual VAT gap report. The report shows that the European Union Member States lost a total of €140 billion in VAT in 2018. Even more worrisome is the forecast that those same Member States will lose a total of €164 billion in VAT over 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Luckily there is also positive news as Commissioner Gentiloni is planning to ‘step up the fight against VAT fraud’.