Yes, you read that right!
The efficiency of VAT collection differs considerably among Member States of the European Union, but it seems the Republic of Croatia might just find itself among the best...
As Poslovni Dnevnik reports on the 29th of September, 2017, an a new study undetaken by the European Commission (EC), appears to have come across some rather interesting results. As Croatia is a member of the EU, it falls under the EU-wide VAT regime, but the collection of taxes can differ greatly between each member state. According to the EC's study, two rather unlikely countries - Croatia and Spain, are the best.
The largest shortfall was found in Romania (37.2%), Slovakia (29.4%) and Greece (28.3%), however, if we're looking at absolute amounts and reading literally, the largest deficit was recorded in Italy, with a massive 35 billion euros.
The lowest deficit was recorded by Spain (3.5%) and was followed very closely by Croatia (3.9%).
The overall deficit was reduced in most EU member states when compared to figures taken from the previous year, with the biggest improvements having been recorded in Malta, Romania and Spain. In seven Member States - Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Luxembourg, Finland and the United Kingdom - statistics have improved only slightly.
"Member States should not accept such alarmingly large losses of VAT revenue. The Commission supports the efforts to improve VAT collection within the EU, but it should be borne in mind that the current VAT rules were compiled in 1993 and because of that, we'll soon be proposing VAT a reform on cross-border sales. Our reform will enable 80% of VAT-related cross-border frauds to be reduced and [will see] the money returned to member states," stated Pierre Moscovici.
