Serving as an introduction to one of the "hottest" topics in financial crime, the Value Added Tax (VAT) fraud, this new and original book aims to analyze and decrypt the fraud and explore multi-disciplinary avenues, thereby exposing nuances and shades that remain concealed by traditional taxation oriented researches. Quantifying the impact of the fraud on the real economy underlines the structural damages propagated by this crime in the European Union. The ‘fruadsters’ benefit when policy changes are inflicted in an economic space without a fully fledged legal framework. Geopolitical events like the creation of the Eurasian Union and 'Brexit' are analyzed from the perspective of the VAT fraud, thereby underlining the foreseeable risks of such historical turnarounds. In addition, this book also provides a unique collection of case studies that depict the main characteristics of VAT fraud. Introduction to VAT Fraud will be of interest to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners. It addresses the topics with regards to banking and finance law, international law, criminal law, taxation, accounting, and financial crime. It will be of value to researchers, academics, professionals, and students in the fields of law, financial crime, technology, accounting and taxation.

This research report aims at filling the knowledge gap concerning organized business crime by highlighting one specific phenomenon, that of EU cross-border VAT fraud. It intends to provide insight into: the effectiveness of the present VAT control system; the vulnerability of legitimate trade to criminal inroads; and, the development of organized crime in this area.

Like any tax, the VAT is vulnerable to evasion and fraud. But its credit and refund mechanism does offer unique opportunities for abuse, and this has recently become an urgent concern in the European Union (EU). This paper describes the main forms of noncompliance distinctive to a VAT, considers how they can be addressed, and assesses evidence on their extent in high-income countries. While the practical significance of current difficulties in the EU should not be over-stated, administrative measures alone may prove insufficient to deal with them, and a fundamental redesign of the VAT treatment of intra-community trade required. The current difficulties in the EU largely reflect circumstances that would not apply in the United States.

This paper reviews the rapidly growing empirical literature on international tax avoidance by multinational corporations. It surveys evidence on main channels of corporate tax avoidance including transfer mispricing, international debt shifting, treaty shopping, tax deferral and corporate inversions. Moreover, it performs a meta analysis of the extensive literature that estimates the overall size of profit shifting. We find that the literature suggests that, on average, a 1 percentage-point lower corporate tax rate will expand before-tax income by 1 percent—an effect that is larger than reported as the consensus estimate in previous surveys and tends to be increasing over time. The literature on tax avoidance still has several unresolved puzzles and blind spots that require further research.

Missing Trader Intra-Community Fraud (also known as carousel fraud), where goods are repeatedly exported and imported with the EU, has caused a considerable loss of revenue In 2005/6 it is estimated the UK lost between £3-4.5 billion. This report looks both at some of the measure that have been taken to recoup some of this money and measures to stop fraud occurring. In addition it considers whether the Government's policies have imposed an unreasonable burden upon legitimate businesses within affected sectors. It concludes that not only are existing measures unsustainable, steps need to be taken to ensure innocent traders are not damaged. The government needs to work with Member States to implement a system of taxation of intra-Community transactions that will be less vulnerable to major fraud.

"This book will be an interesting and valuable tool for both regulators and practitioners alike to deepen their understanding of the various tax systems and the way certain issues are solved under different regimes, in order to encourage international trade and lay the groundwork for the removal of tax obstacles and related costs in global commerce."--Extracted from publisher website on March 25, 2014.