On 12 February 2014, the European Commission adopted two reports related to fighting Value Added Tax (VAT) fraud within the EU. The reports outline possible ways of improving procedures for dealing with this problem.

The first report looks at VAT collection and control procedures across the Member States, within the context of EU own resources. It concludes that Member States need to modernize their VAT administrations in order to reduce the VAT Gap. The second report looks at administrative cooperation and other available tools and examines how they are being used in order to combat VAT Fraud in the EU. It finds that more effort is needed to enhance cross border cooperation, and recommends solutions such as joint audits, administrative cooperation with third countries, more resources for enquiries and controls and procedures for the automatic exchange of information amongst all Member States on VAT.

The European Commission noted that this report is part of a wider package on the strategy to improve the fight against VAT fraud which includes the study of the VAT gap. The Commission based its report on the questionnaire addressed to the Member States, relevant discussions and annual statistics provided by the Member States. The Commission plans to provide an update, by the end of 2015, on the progress made by the Member States in overcoming the shortcomings set out in the report.