EU VAT frauds

The paper analyzes the VAT frauds issues in the European Union after the abolition of the internal customs. All the suggested solutions based on the origin principle create distortions in the "one market" and have a doubtful efficiency. The reverse-charge regime for all business to business transactions joint with VAT at the last stage also creates heavy discriminations. The current system based on the destination principle joint with ad hoc measures-such as specific reverse-charge, rebate and margin regime under evidence that VAT due has been paid, joint/several liability...-and a consistent information-exchange-system may provide a less distorting solution. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC