Measurement of Value Added Tax Evasion in Selected EU Countries on the Basis of National Accounts Data

Abstract

The size of tax evasion and fraud appears to be increasing steadily in the EU. To a certain extent, the completion of Single Market has further encouraged firms’ and households’ evasive behaviour in paying value added taxes in the EU Member States, whereas such efforts have traditionally been most pronounced in the field of corporate and personal income taxation. This study primarily deals with the quantification of the VAT evasion and fraud in the EU. On the basis of the national accounts data, it suggests a novel way of estimating the annual amount of hypothetical VAT revenues for the individual EU countries. The relation between the calculated hypothetical and the (current) collected revenues in a fiscal year largely determines the extent of VAT evasion and fraud of a country, when the time-lag problem between the creation of tax liability and the VAT collection in cash terms can be adjusted.