EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

VAT Fraud and Evasion: What Do We Know and What Can Be Done?

Michael Keen and Stephen Smith

National Tax Journal, 2006, vol. 59, issue 4, 861-87

Abstract: Like any tax, the VAT is vulnerable to evasion and fraud. But its credit and refund mechanism offers 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 overstated, administrative measures alone may prove insufficient to deal with them, and a fundamental redesign of the VAT treatment of intra–community trade may be required. The current difficulties in the EU largely reflect circumstances that would not apply in the U.S.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (70)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2006.4.07 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2006.4.07 (text/html)
Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.

Related works:
Working Paper: VAT Fraud and Evasion: What Do We Know, and What Can be Done? (2007) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ntj:journl:v:59:y:2006:i:4:p:861-87

Access Statistics for this article

National Tax Journal is currently edited by Stacy Dickert-Conlin and William M. Gentry

More articles in National Tax Journal from National Tax Association, National Tax Journal Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by The University of Chicago Press ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-31
Handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:59:y:2006:i:4:p:861-87