This course will be delivered as part of the Supporting Capacity Development of Tax Administrations in South East Europe project primarily supported by the Dutch Ministry of Finance, Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Assistance Technique France (Adetef). The overall objective of the project is to contribute to strengthening of beneficiary institutions’ capacity in implementing the EU’s recommendations under which the revenue authorities can deliver tax compliance risk management.

What you will learn

Tax authorities across South East Europe are faced with more and more sophisticated VAT fraud schemes. Types of VAT fraud range from internal fraud (wrong declarations or undue deductions), which can be addressed by improving tax administration and developing sophisticated risk based auditing systems, and fraud, which has an international dimension and requires some degree of administrative cooperation, of which cross-border fraud is particularly important.

In this regard the course will highlight the harmful effects that result from lack of transparency and lack of effective exchange of information and will illustrate the procedures and controls to be implemented to combat the VAT carousel or missing trader fraud. Since the tax evasion has been identified as a major cause of lost revenues and has become a big threat part of the course will also be devoted to the VAT evasion with immovable and movable property which has been experienced in many countries.

How you will benefit

The course will promote the experience-sharing and the sharing of best practice among participants. In this context, the course is expected to provide insights into current developments and challenges in VAT administration along with the exchange of information on recent VAT fraud schemes supported by discussions on possible ways of combating them. Participants will also be encouraged to reflect on region-specific issues and recommend strategies and initiatives for enhancing effectiveness of VAT administration.

By the end of the course, participants will have:
• Received insights into the most recent VAT fraud schemes (national, international – EU and non EU area)
• Learned about different measures to reinforce the VAT system
• Discussed possible ways to combat VAT evasion as well as VAT carousel fraud
• Learned by exchange of experiences from other countries

Who should attend

The course has been designed for mid to senior level tax officials who are involved and/or have experience with the prevention, investigation and prosecution of VAT fraud within their institutions.
To situate the course program according to the specific needs and expectations participants are encouraged to submit in advance examples of real cases they deal with at their work and are relevant to the course topics. These will be then reviewed by the course faculty and will provide a useful basis for class discussion.

Participants are expected to take an active part in the workshop activities. The success of the workshop is directly dependent on the participants’ active engagement in the discussions and group work.