Activities of Bart STAES related to 2008/2151(INI)
Plenary speeches (2)
Combating tax evasion connected with intra-Community transactions (common system of VAT) - Combating tax evasion connected with intra-Community transactions - European Court of Auditors' Special Report No 8/2007 concerning administrative cooperation in the Field of VAT (debate)
Combating tax evasion connected with intra-Community transactions (common system of VAT) - Combating tax evasion connected with intra-Community transactions - European Court of Auditors' Special Report No 8/2007 concerning administrative cooperation in the Field of VAT (debate)
Reports (1)
REPORT Report on the European Court of Auditors' Special Report No 8/2007 concerning administrative cooperation in the Field of value added tax PDF (188 KB) DOC (107 KB)
Amendments (12)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas the Commission, in its communication of 31 May 2006 concerning the need to develop a co- ordinated strategy to improve the fight against fiscal fraud (COM(2006)0254), observed that Member States were not making sufficient use of the possibilities for administrative cooperation offered by the reinforcement of the legal framework under Regulation (EC) No 1798/2003, and considered the level of administrative cooperation to be disproportionate to the volume of intra-Community trade,
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the Court of Auditors' Special Report No. 8/2007, which provides an independent assessment of administrative cooperation to fight VAT evasion and fraud and analyses Member States’ performance and the Commission’s role in great detail; concludes, on the basis of the Court of Auditors' findings, that Regulation (EC) No 1798/2003 is not an effective tool for administrative cooperation as several Member States obstruct its implementation and the Commission's role is limited;
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Urges the Commission and the Council to give a higher priority to the development of a common approach in order to quantify and analyse VAT fraud, which should allow assessment as to whether measures taken by Member States against VAT evasion and fraud are successful, or whether they just trigger a displacement of VAT fraud to other economic sectors or Member States;
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Requests the Commission and, the Council and the Member States to fully take into account the conclusrecommendations of the Contact Committee of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the European Union, which is currently drafting recommendations for of December 2007, which include proposals as to how Member States could improve their estimates and how a single model for the estimation of VAT fraud could be established;
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Urges Member States to guarantee timely exchange of information on request; is convinced that the proposed amendments to the VAT directive and to Regulation No 1798/2003 aiming at shortening the deadlines for the collection and the exchange of information will only produce their full effects if Member States which have not yet done so set up monitoring mechanisms to ensure timely answers to requests; requests the Commission to inform it about the progress made by individual Member States in setting up the monitoring mechanisms and to assess their effectiveness;
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Council to address the discrepancy between the number of requests for information which a Member State claims to have received and the number of requests other Member States claim to have sent to it, and to solve this problem as a matter of urgency;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Regrets that simultaneous, multilateral controls are not sufficiently used by Member States, although the Community provides for their funding and the Court of Auditors reports that good results can be achieved;
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Regrets, particularly in the light of the above-mentioned shortcomings observed by the Court of Auditors with regard to Germany, that Germany did not comply with the Court's audit request; supports the Court of Auditors' view that Germany's refusal constitutes a breach of its obligations under the EC Treaty; calls on the Commission to start an infringement procedure before the Court of Justice against Germany without further delay; invites the Court of Auditors to carry out the planned audit in Germany in the case of a favourable judgment of the Court of Justice;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Notes that the Commission has no access to the content of information exchanged under Regulation (EC) No 1798/2003, but is limited to the maintenance and development of the communication network; agrees with the Court of Auditors that this hampers the Commission's ability to detect the reasons for problems and to put forward solutions;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Notes that Europol opened an analytical work file on missing trader intra- Community fraud in April 2008, which aims at identifying the organisers of fraud, uncovering their criminal networks and analysing the most common forms of missing trader intra-Community fraud;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Agrees that a new political impetus is needed in order to achieve substantial improvements in cooperation in the fight against VAT fraud; however, firmly opposes the tendency to step backwards into forms of intergovernmental cooperation, as suggested in the current debates in the Council; considers that the Commission as the institution driven by European and not national interests would be better placed to act as a coordinator than a Member State;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20a. Asks the Council to continue negotiations on the proposal for a regulation on mutual administrative assistance in the fight against fraud affecting the financial interests of the European Community, including VAT fraud, which would provide a detailed framework for multidisciplinary administrative anti-fraud cooperation;