EU concerning mutual assistance for the recovery of claims relating to taxes, duties and other measures - Main contents

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dossier	COM(2017)778 - Operation of the arrangements established by Council Directive 2010/24/EU concerning mutual assistance for the recovery of ...
document	COM(2017)778
date	December 18, 2017

agreement between the EU and Norway, relating to administrative cooperation in the field of VAT. Mutual recovery assistance for VAT claims is included in this agreement. The rules governing this recovery assistance correspond to the provisions of the EU Directive – although the scope of this agreement is limited to VAT claims – and the EU electronic forms would be used in the relations with Norway. The electronic recovery forms are indeed developed in such a way that they can be used in relations with third countries. This common framework will facilitate the work of the competent authorities.

4.4. Better communication and more guidance needed

a. The Commission services have already taken several actions to raise the awareness about the EU legislation concerning mutual tax recovery assistance, and to explain the complex rules of this legislation:

- national tax authorities can raise their questions in the Recovery Expert Group or via their national contact points, and they are invited to participate in Fiscalis 2020 ¹⁶ workshops or project groups;

- the legislation is explained to the public via a specific webpage, with "frequently asked questions and answers", on the website of the Commission; ¹⁷

- a newsletter on national, EU and international developments in the field of tax collection and recovery, including recovery assistance, is also published on the website of the Commission. ¹⁸

b. However, the responses to the consultation of the tax authorities as well as the public consultation make it clear that tax authorities, taxpayers and tax practitioners wish to have more guidance on the interpretation and application of the EU rules in this field.

The extension of the scope to all taxes and the fact that other (decentralised) offices should also be aware of the recovery assistance possibilities (for sending requests) or of their obligations if they have to take recovery or precautionary measures (for incoming requests) would require providing more information and/or training to national authorities.

Such further guidance may also be useful for other tax practitioners dealing with tax recovery assistance cases (e.g. judges in the Member States, having to authorise specific precautionary or recovery measures, or dealing with contestations of such measures) and more information could also be shared with the public. ¹⁹

c. Member States have an important role in this communication. The Commission will continue to support the Member States in this effort. A first step will be the publication of the explanatory notes on the interpretation of the EU recovery assistance legislation. ²⁰

5. CONCLUSIONS

a. The EU legislation and framework for tax recovery assistance has facilitated tax recovery assistance between the EU Member States.

b. In order to guarantee the efficiency and effectiveness of mutual recovery assistance, Member States should strengthen their internal tax recovery systems and deploy sufficient resources to deal with recovery assistance requests.

   In this regard, it should be examined if and how detailed and precise quantitative information can be collected about the administrative burden and costs, and about the correspondence between the workload of incoming requests for assistance and the administrative resources deployed in the requested State.

c. Improving different (legal and technical) aspects of the functioning of the system may still be considered with the Member States and other stakeholders, including taxpayers.

d. More communication to explain and promote this legislation would contribute to increase tax compliance and respect of taxpayers' rights.

e. Recovery of taxes is and remains difficult in case of organised tax fraud by natural or legal persons: natural persons committing fraud or setting up fraudulent tax structures go missing and dislocate their assets; legal persons organise their insolvency and also move their assets. As a consequence of the international development of exchange of information, recovery assistance between the EU and third countries will become a more prominent issue.

(1)

   OJ L 84, 31.3.2010, p. 1.

(2)

   Previous reports on mutual tax recovery assistance dealt with the recovery assistance on the basis of the former legislation: the first arrangements for mutual recovery assistance were set out in Council Directive 76/308/EEC of 15 March 1976. That Directive and the acts amending it were codified by Council Directive 2008/55/EC of 26 May 2008.

These previous reports were presented on 04.09.2009 (report COM(2009)451 on the use of mutual recovery assistance in 2005-2008) and on 15.02.2012 (report COM(2012)58 on the use of mutual recovery assistance in 2009-2010).

(3)

   Directive 2010/24/EU had to be implemented by 1 January 2012. The Commission however considers it useful to compare also with the situation in 2011, when the former Directive 2008/55/EC still applied.

(4)

   No statistics are available with regard to the number of requests for precautionary measures before 2013.

(5)

   There is no clear explanation for the temporary dip in 2013. However, several Member States were late in implementing Directive 2010/24 and this may also have affected the communication of new requests and the follow-up of old requests.

(6)

   In the years 2015-2016, one case of officials going to another Member State was reported.

(7)

   Regulation 904/2010 on administrative cooperation in the field of VAT; Regulation 389/2012 on administrative cooperation in the field of excise duties; Directive 2011/16 on administrative cooperation for other taxes.

(8)

   The statistics currently collected do not permit to draw precise conclusions with regard to the recovery rate (see Commission staff working document, point 4.2.3.).

(9)

   See Commission staff working document, point 6.1.1.2.

(10)

   Preamble of Council Directive 2010/24/EU, point 4.

(11)

   This conclusion was also confirmed in an analysis made by the Belgian Court of audit in October 2014 (see point 6.2.2.1.f. of the Commission staff working document).

(12)

   It should however be noted that the number of respondents having a personal experience with these uniform instruments was very low.

(13)

   Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee on an action plan on VAT, COM(2016)148 final, point 3.2.

(14)

   See the Commission staff working document (point 6.1.1.2., table 5c).

(15)

   An overview of these suggestions can be found in the Commission staff working document (point 6.3.2.).

(16)

   Fiscalis 2020 is an EU cooperation programme enabling national tax administrations to create and exchange information and expertise. See: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/fiscalis-programme/fiscalis-2020-programme_en

(17)

    http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/tax-cooperation-control/tax-recovery_en

(18)

    http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/tax-cooperation-control/tax-recovery_en

(19)

   It resulted from the open public consultation that most respondents are not aware of the communication actions already undertaken by the Commission services.

(20)

   On 22 February 2017, the Recovery Expert Group agreed to make these explanatory notes publicly available in the near future.