E-commerce fraude

Parlementaire vraag nr. P-000419/2020 van mevrouw Virginie Joron d.d. 24.01.2020

Vraag

aan de Raad

Artikel 138 van het Reglement

E-commerce fraude

“Deze tekst is niet beschikbaar in het Nederlands“

Answer in writing

Priority question

to the Commission

Rule 138

E-commerce fraud

QUESTION

A report by the French Inspectorate General of Finance (IGF) has found that 98% of online sellers on French e-commerce marketplaces are not registered for VAT [1] . According to the Court of Auditors, VAT fraud in France amounts to approximately EUR 15 billion per year, equivalent to around 8% of VAT revenue [2] . The Court of Auditors has criticised the decrease in the number of auditors and fraud convictions in France [3] .

Buying a product from China or the United States involves a distortion of competition as there is no VAT on it, so the product is 20% cheaper. This fraud poses a clear threat to the entire European internal market, especially when it comes to Christmas shopping.

Can the Commission give an estimate of the damage caused at European level and how is it tackling this fraud?

[1] https://www.bfmtv.com/economie/e-commerce-la-fraude-a-la-tva-s-avere-plus-massive-que-prevue-1820820.html.

[2] https://www.bfmtv.com/economie/l-action-de-la-france-contre-la-fraude-fiscale-est-jugee-pas-au-niveau-par-la-cour-des-comptes-1817152.html.

[3] https://www.bfmtv.com/economie/l-action-de-la-france-contre-la-fraude-fiscale-est-jugee-pas-au-niveau-par-la-cour-des-comptes-1817152.html.

ANSWER

given by Mr Gentiloni on behalf of the European Commission, reply of 04.03.2020

As the registration for and the control of VAT are national competences, the Commission does not have an EU-wide estimate of this kind of VAT abuse. The Commission is, however, aware of the abuse of the VAT exemption threshold for goods imported into the EU and in 2016, proposed new VAT rules for e-commerce transactions.

The impact assessment accompanying the proposal estimated that the failure to act on e-commerce would lead to an even greater advantage for non-EU sellers and to an overall VAT revenue loss for Member States estimated at EUR 7 billion annually in 2020 and growing annually by at least 15%[1].

In December 2017, the Council adopted the VAT e-commerce package[2] that includes extended obligations for marketplaces. From 1 January 2021, the marketplaces will become liable for the VAT on all supplies made by non-EU established sellers (e.g. Chinese sellers having a stock of goods in the EU) and will need to provide information to the tax authorities in the EU for the remaining transactions they facilitate.

In addition, the Commission proposed in 2018 a legislative package[3] to request EU-established payment service providers to transmit payment data to tax authorities on the recipients of payment they execute. This will further help fight e-commerce VAT fraud.

The data will be centralised in a European database (Central Electronic System of Payments — CESOP ) and put at the disposal of tax authorities’ anti-fraud experts. In 2019, the Council reached a general agreement[4] and the European Parliament issued a positive opinion[5] paving the way for its adoption early 2020.

These EU measures provide Member States with powerful tools to tackle these practices.

[1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52016SC0379&from=EN , page 20

[2] Council Directive (EU) 2017/2455 .

[3] See COM(2018) 812 Final and COM(2018) 813 Final

[4] Ecofin of 8 November 2019: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2019/11/08/e-commerce-council-reaches-provisional-agreement-on-new-rules-for-exchange-of-vat-payment-data/

[5] 17 December 2019 plenary: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2019-0090_EN.pdfhttp://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2019-0090_EN.pdf and http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2019-0091_EN.pdf