Full transparency within the EU and...
Under current EU legislation, Belgium, Austria and Luxembourg benefit from a transitional period during which they are not required to automatically exchange information on tax matters and can instead apply a withholding tax to savings accounts of non-residents as an alternative.
The approved report calls for an end of this transitional period at the latest by July 2014.
...end of tax havens around the world
Moreover, Members agreed to call on the Community to "take appropriate action" to improve transparency of so-called tax havens. This would mean, for jurisdictions large and small, including the Monaco, Andorra and Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the US, agreeing to apply the OECD standards in the field of transparency and exchange of information on tax matters.
According to the rapporteur, tax fraud in the European Union amounts to more than EUR 200 billion a year, which represents more than 2% of its GDP.
As is usual with taxation issues, Parliament's views are advisory rather than binding and the final decision is for the Council, acting unanimously.
Parliament supports tightening up rules on VAT exemptions to avoid fraud
Making more difficult for cross border traders to exploit VAT exemption provisions to avoid paying tax is the aim of the proposed legislation.
The report by Cornelis VISSER (EPP-ED, NL) approved by 349 votes in favour, 32 against and 2 abstentions backs the Commission proposal to tighten the conditions under which the importer can benefit from the exemption.
Suppliers to be liable for VAT loss
MEPs backed the proposal to make the supplier, in intra-community trades, be liable for the VAT loss created by his missing customer in another Member State, in case the supplier failed to correctly report his supply to VAT authority.
In an approved amendment, EP asks the Commission for an evaluation report five years after entry into force of the new legislation, especially to assess the administrative costs for supplier.
Illegal use of VAT exemption
According to current EU legislation, the importation of goods is exempt from VAT if followed by a transfer of those goods to a trader in another Member State. Nevertheless, the inadequate implementation of this exemption in national law led to difficulty in following the physical movement of the imported goods. As a consequence, the Member State of destination gets no information about the arrival of goods on its territory, which impedes the detection of potential VAT losses.
According to the Commission, the increased use of this particular exemption has caused tax frauds. In fact, fraud investigators have reported that traders in intra-community supplies intentionally do not report their supply to the tax authorities.
