31 October 2017
An anti VAT fraud public prosecutor’s office will be established by 20 EU member states and will primarily focus on the EU trading block’s estimated €50bn VAT fraud issue.
The new department will come into place by 2020 and will be based in Luxembourg. It will be made up from seconded prosecutors from each participating member state.
Its immediate remit will be to track and co-ordinate investigations into cross-border missing trader fraud. This is where criminal gangs exploit the EU VAT regime on nil-VAT ratings for intra-community supplies.
The eight EU states that have declined to join the new initiative are the Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, UK, Poland, Ireland, Malta and Denmark.
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