Uncollected VAT in Europe Amounts to €128 Billion, Report Finds

Tax administrations should have collected €128 billion ($150 million) more in value-added tax in 2023 than they did, according to a new report published by the European Commission on Thursday.

There was a large variation among EU countries. Some, like Finland and Austria, had a tax gap of less than 5%, while others, like Romania and Malta, showed more than 20%.

The report explains that the gap is due to multiple factors including evasion and fraud, but also erroneous filing, lack of administrative capacity, and policy choices.

“Every year, billions of public revenues are lost to governments, ...