European member states to receive a ‘super weapon’ against VAT carousels and fraud.
VAT fraud is the largest ongoing tax fraud in Europe: criminal gangs are stealing €50 billion every year from EU members states, according to the EU commission. The losses are made worse by a lack of cooperation between EU members with Germany in particular, obstructing measures to fight tax fraud.
Belgium are successfully combating VAT fraud for over a decade.
The Transactional Network Analysis (TNA) uses intuitive algorithms to quickly assess multiple international databases and review huge amounts of data to identify suspicious VAT activity and likely cases of fraud. This enables the authorities to intervene quickly, and most importantly, before the damage to the countries treasury increases.
This software has been successfully used in Belgium since 2002. In this time, Belgian authorities have managed to reduce the damage caused by VAT carousels in Belgium from €1.1 billion in 2001 to under €45 million in 2018 – an impressive 96% reduction in 15 years.
Super Weapon to roll out by end of 2019
It is estimated that EU member states lose around €50 billion each year to organised crime gangs and VAT carousels. The EU leaders are hoping the ‘Super Weapon’ success seen in Belgium will be replicated on a European-wide scale. It is estimated the in the second half of the year the software will be used by all European states.
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