Value added tax (VAT) carousel fraud in the European Union

Objectives: The central aim of this paper is to determine as accurately as possible the nature, extent and cost of vat carousel fraud to the public and private sectors within the European community. Prior Work: The European Union (EU) Institutions and Member states have put forward several measures to tackle this problem, although some of these have placed a disproportionate burden on business.  A lot of countries have imposed distinct measures to combat VAT carousel fraud and important lessons have been emerged about their efficiency and compliance. Approach: The methodology takes a comprehensive review of prior research evaluating real evidence of VAT carousel fraud and analysing attempts by the European Union to tackle effectively VAT carousel fraud. Results: The study concludes that the possible solutions are in the field of closer cooperation and understanding among related parties as well as the application of combined restrictive measures. Implications: The study has implications to the society, managers and policy makers.  The results will aid national authorities to implement and share best practice to combat VAT carousel fraud with other national governments.  Value: Confronted with the drastic increase of VAT carousel fraud, the European Commission identified the urgent need of a coherent strategy to combat it.  Yet, neither the literature nor the practices of tax and law enforcement have addressed the threat adequately. This study research gives approaching solutions to delineate essential procedures and principles to embark upon VAT carousel fraud. &nbsp

The Adequacy of Accounting Mandatory Disclosures: A Field Study in Cyprus

The research paper explores professional accountants and investors' perceptions on the adequacy of the quality and quantity of current accounting mandatory disclosure, within the Cyprus environment

Chapter Efficient Node Placement for Congestion Control in Wireless Sensor Networks

Geology & the lithospher

Efficient Node Placement for Congestion Control in Wireless Sensor Networks

Geology & the lithospher

Enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in Europe's Higher Education institutions

Quality assurance considers that ‘prevention is better than a cure’. Quality is a continuous improvement, where it does not come by chance or by accident and is achieved when every professor succeeds in igniting the minds of students. Nonetheless, across the European Union, there is a diverse picture of how European higher institutions promote quality in teaching and learning. The issue of quality in higher education has been given the attention in the academic and legislative environment starting with the Bologna process. Together with the Bologna process, the Lisbon strategy has led to the development and consolidation of universities, with a view to instating a quality culture. It is the aim of this paper to present the challenges in the European Higher Education area. Moreover, this paper identifies European standards and guidelines that European institutions should implement for the continuous enhancement of quality

Psychopathy as a predisposition to lie hedonistically

Excessive lying is generally considered to be a hallmark of psychopathy. Meanwhile, the empirical evidence for the association between psychopathy and lying is somewhat limited. In the present study, non-clinical volunteers completed a measure of psychopathy, and were then brought in an experimental situation (a puzzle task) in which they could opt to lie for potential personal gain (i.e. monetary reward). Findings suggest that 19% of participants (i.e. 31 out of 166) lied about their performance in the puzzle task, thus increasing their likelihood of gaining additional reward. These lying participants scored significantly higher on psychopathy than did their honest peers. Thus, the findings support the hypothesis that psychopathy is characterised by deceitful behaviour. Particularly, psychopathic boldness was associated with lying.</p

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as an intervention to improve empathic abilities and reduce violent behavior in forensic offenders: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Recent studies show that changes in one of the brain areas related to empathic abilities (i.e. the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)) plays an important role in violent behavior in abusers of alcohol and cocaine. According to the models of James Blair, empathy is a potential inhibitor of violent behavior. Individuals with less empathic abilities may be less susceptible and motivated to inhibit violent behavior, which causes a higher risk of violence. Recent neuroscientific research shows that modulating (stimulation or inhibition) certain brain areas could be a promising new intervention for substance abuse and to reduce violent behavior, such as the neurostimulation technique transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). This study aims to investigate tDCS as a