ALLVAT speaker seminar Chamber of Commerce The Hague

The seminar organised by the Chamber of Commerce is held in Dutch and deals with international VAT on supplies of goods and services. Below information is therefore in Dutch.

If you are interested in a seminar or training in English contact ALLVAT at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Internationale BTW bij goederen en diensten (Door: KvK Den Haag)

The VAT fraud with CO2 emission trade continues at a large schale and many regions around the world are involved. In the press release of today (link) Director Robert Wainwright of Europol comments: "Organised VAT fraud remains a significant criminal activity in Europe". A year ago Europol also published a press release with the same conclusion: the VAT fraud with CO2 emission trade is enormous and was estimated around €5 billion. See the press release of December 2009.

Today the European Commission published its press release on its request for input for a new VAT system:

The European Commission today launched a wide public consultation on how the EU’s Value Added Tax (VAT) system can be strengthened and improved, to the benefit of citizens, businesses and Member States. The aim is to give all stakeholders a chance to express their thoughts and views on the problems that currently exist with regard to VAT, and how these can be addressed. The Commission will use the feedback from this consultation to decide the best approach in creating a more stable, robust and effective VAT system for the future.

On the site of the European Commission all information is available in relation to this consultation. The link to this page of the Commission you find here

Sijbren Cnossen, advisor to the Dutch Buro for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) in The Hague, today published his impressive package of three VAT Studies.

1. There is not enough exchange of VAT knowlegde and information between lawyers, economists and accountants.

2. Carousel Fraud can only be tackled by auditing (accountants) more and more both supplier and customer.

3. Levy VAT within the EU on all real estate transactions in stead of other types of real estate (transfer) taxes.

The abstract in English you find here:

The first study is a VAT primer for lawyers, economists, and accountants who rarely talk to each other about tax issues, particularly in the Netherlands. The different views illuminate the nature and workings of the VAT. The second study examines and evaluates VAT coordination in the EU against the backdrop of an analysis of VAT fraud. Carousel fraud is dwarfed by shadow economy fraud and contrived insolvency fraud. The taxation of intracommunity exports is not the solution to VAT coordination problems. Rather the focus should be on cross-border VAT audit, followed up, if necessary, by investigation and prosecution of fraudsters. The third study argues that value changes in exempt immovable property should be brought into the VAT base, similar to value changes in other second-hand goods that are traded by taxable dealers. This extension of the VAT base should replace the inequitable and distortionary transfer or registration taxes and stamp duties on transactions in immovable property that are currently levied in the various member states.

The package of the three VAT studies can be downloaded from the internet site of the CPB. Follow this link for the studies.