The EU Council has adopted conclusions on the fight against VAT fraud and exchanged views on reduced VAT rates.

One measure in the fight against fraud is the proposal which relates to the submission of VAT returns monthly where the taxpayer is carrying out intra-Community acquisitions of goods and purchases of services from a supplier established in another Member State for an amount higher than €200,000 per calendar year. In June of this year ICAI, under the CCAB-I, sent a letter to Revenue outlining our concerns on this proposal.

We understand that the Irish Revenue already has a very effective anti-fraud initiative of actually calling to an office/business established by a person/shareholder with a foreign address before issuing a VAT registration number. It would therefore appear that the Irish Revenue is ahead of the rest of Europe in this area. Surely this measure is definitely more effective than the increased VAT3 submissions.

Further information on the Commission decision is available at

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ecofin/103209.pdf