Spain stopped paying almost 2,000 million euros for VAT fraud in 2016

Spain stopped paying almost 2,000 million euros for VAT fraud in 2016

In the whole of the European Union, this figure reaches 150,000 million euros

  Spain ceased to enter 1,966 million euros of VAT in 2016, which is 3% of the 70,591 million euros of what was finally collected for this concept, according to a report by the European Commission.

This figure is a point lower than what was left to enter in 2015, when the 2,900 million euros that were defrauded accounted for 4% of the 68,600 million euros collected by VAT.

For the community institution, Spain, like the rest of the member countries, "has worked hard" to improve the collection of the tax, although it considers necessary to reform the current system to focus it on greater cooperation throughout the Union.

Part of this effort made by Spain has been reflected in the decrease that has registered the 'tax gap' of VAT in recent years. If in 2013, up to 12% of what was finally collected was defrauded, a year later, this figure was reduced to 9% and up to 4% a year later.

Specifically, five years ago, the Spanish tax system lost more than 8,000 million euros for VAT fraud, so finally the amount raised amounted to about 61,000 million euros.

However, in 2016, the total collection amounted to 70,591 million euros, thanks, in part, to the reduction of the fiscal gap of more than nine points in relation to what was left to enter four years earlier.

In Europe, the gap is 12%

In the European Union as a whole, the total amount lost amounted to 147,100 million euros, which represented a reduction of 10,500 million compared to 2015, when the 'fiscal gap' represented 13.2% of the total collected, compared to 12.3% of 2016.

In gross terms, Italy was the country that stopped failing to enter VAT, accounting for a lost amount of almost 36,000 million euros, followed by Germany, where the gap was about 23,000 million, from the United Kingdom, with 22,000 million, and France, with almost 21,000 million.

However, if the amount that is finally collected is taken into account, Romania leads the list by stopping almost 36% of what is finally collected by VAT. It is followed by Greece, with 29%, Italy, with 26%, Slovakia, with 26%, Lithuania, with 24%, and Poland, with 21%.

For the Commissioner of Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, Pierre Moscovici, despite the fact that the Member States "have improved collection", which is "worthy of recognition and praise", underlines that "a loss for national budgets of 150,000 million euros a year, especially when 50,000 million go to the pocket of criminals, scammers and, probably, even terrorists ».