One fraudster told the Guardian: "We have a straw in every VAT pot in Europe, and we're going to keep sucking money out until they're empty. The scale of this thing is much bigger than most governments either realise or are admitting."
VAT fraud costing Europe €50bn a year
Carousel scam escalates out of control as governments are accused of denial
The explosion in "carousel" VAT fraud across the European Union over the past year is said to be costing governments a total amount more than they spend on the common agricultural policy each year, the Guardian can reveal.
With Britain set to lose up to £10bn in 2006 - equivalent to 3p on the basic rate of tax - European officials are warning that the problem is escalating rapidly across the EU, and other countries are likely to be experiencing losses of similar proportions. If the estimates are correct, the EU's total loss each year would be around €50bn (£35bn) - the same as total common agricultural policy spending, and five times more than expenditure on employment and social affairs.
"This is now the number-one tax fraud. We are losing billions of euros," said the EU tax commissioner, Laszlo Kovacs.
So-called carousel fraud involves compact, high-value goods such as computer chips and mobile phones being shipped into an EU country free of VAT. The tax is added when the goods are sold but is not handed over to the respective government.
The loss is compounded when the goods are re-exported by another company in a chain of trades, known as a carousel, and the VAT is reclaimed - even though it had not been paid in the first place.
In the past year, goods have started to be exported to countries outside the EU, such as Dubai, and then reimported to another EU state and spun round the carousel again, often many times.
Organised criminals and terrorist groups are drawn to the crime because of the huge profits involved. A Guardian investigation earlier this year discovered massive growth in the fraud, with perpetrators now so sophisticated that they engage in "virtual" carousel fraud, using computers to generate an illusory string of trades to reclaim tax.
One fraudster told the Guardian: "We have a straw in every VAT pot in Europe, and we're going to keep sucking money out until they're empty. The scale of this thing is much bigger than most governments either realise or are admitting."
UK losses in 2005 are thought to have risen to £5bn, and could be double that this year, according to estimates based on HM Revenue and Customs assessments of fraudulent trades. The number of officials investigating carousel fraud was recently doubled to more than 1,000.
The UK's £5bn loss in 2005 represents about 6.5% of the VAT take. If EU officials are correct, at least €50bn is being lost to criminals across Europe each year. The commission has begun an investigation to determine the precise losses, but results are not expected for two years. Werner Blockman, a fraud expert at the commission, said: "The problem is that VAT is a member-state competence. We can only try to get them to cooperate on this, but we cannot force them."
Ian Watson-George, the head of customs at the commission's anti-fraud office, said no one could be sure of the exact extent of the losses, but agreed that the scale of carousel fraud around Europe was probably similar to that in the UK. "All the member states are being affected to a greater or lesser degree, because these frauds are so easy to set up, and so difficult to detect and dismantle."
Not all EU countries will admit they have a carousel fraud problem. One British tax investigator said: "They're like alcoholics. You first have to get them to admit they have a problem before you can decide what to do about it."
VAT fraud costing Europe €50bn a year
Carousel scam escalates out of control as governments are accused of denial
The explosion in "carousel" VAT fraud across the European Union over the past year is said to be costing governments a total amount more than they spend on the common agricultural policy each year, the Guardian can reveal.
With Britain set to lose up to £10bn in 2006 - equivalent to 3p on the basic rate of tax - European officials are warning that the problem is escalating rapidly across the EU, and other countries are likely to be experiencing losses of similar proportions. If the estimates are correct, the EU's total loss each year would be around €50bn (£35bn) - the same as total common agricultural policy spending, and five times more than expenditure on employment and social affairs.
"This is now the number-one tax fraud. We are losing billions of euros," said the EU tax commissioner, Laszlo Kovacs.
So-called carousel fraud involves compact, high-value goods such as computer chips and mobile phones being shipped into an EU country free of VAT. The tax is added when the goods are sold but is not handed over to the respective government.
The loss is compounded when the goods are re-exported by another company in a chain of trades, known as a carousel, and the VAT is reclaimed - even though it had not been paid in the first place.
In the past year, goods have started to be exported to countries outside the EU, such as Dubai, and then reimported to another EU state and spun round the carousel again, often many times.
Organised criminals and terrorist groups are drawn to the crime because of the huge profits involved. A Guardian investigation earlier this year discovered massive growth in the fraud, with perpetrators now so sophisticated that they engage in "virtual" carousel fraud, using computers to generate an illusory string of trades to reclaim tax.
One fraudster told the Guardian: "We have a straw in every VAT pot in Europe, and we're going to keep sucking money out until they're empty. The scale of this thing is much bigger than most governments either realise or are admitting."
UK losses in 2005 are thought to have risen to £5bn, and could be double that this year, according to estimates based on HM Revenue and Customs assessments of fraudulent trades. The number of officials investigating carousel fraud was recently doubled to more than 1,000.
The UK's £5bn loss in 2005 represents about 6.5% of the VAT take. If EU officials are correct, at least €50bn is being lost to criminals across Europe each year. The commission has begun an investigation to determine the precise losses, but results are not expected for two years. Werner Blockman, a fraud expert at the commission, said: "The problem is that VAT is a member-state competence. We can only try to get them to cooperate on this, but we cannot force them."
Ian Watson-George, the head of customs at the commission's anti-fraud office, said no one could be sure of the exact extent of the losses, but agreed that the scale of carousel fraud around Europe was probably similar to that in the UK. "All the member states are being affected to a greater or lesser degree, because these frauds are so easy to set up, and so difficult to detect and dismantle."
Not all EU countries will admit they have a carousel fraud problem. One British tax investigator said: "They're like alcoholics. You first have to get them to admit they have a problem before you can decide what to do about it."
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