ITALY & VAT

With an estimated shortfall of 26 billion euros, Italy is confirmed for the eleventh year in a row as the country in Europe where value added tax evasion creates the heaviest damage to public coffers. A figure that compares with the total 93 billion of the European Union. This is what emerges from the annual report on VAT drawn up by the European Commission. A bleak picture in front of which Brussels relaunches the offensive for a fairer collection system capable, also thanks to electronic invoicing for businesses, of recovering up to 18 billion more in VAT revenue per year. But let's get to the data. Italy remains first among the Twenty-Seven for tax evasion in absolute terms, followed by France, where the losses are worth 14 billion euros, and Germany, which records a lack of collection of 11.1 billion. In percentage terms, Malta (24.1%) and Romania (35.7%) are worse than Italy (20.8%). Those who do not feel the problem of the non-collection of VAT almost at all are Finland, with a gap between estimated and actual revenues of just 1.3%, Estonia (1.8%) and Sweden (2 %).

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