EU Lost Out on 137 Billion Euros VAT Revenue in 2017 (Corrected)

European Union countries lost 137 billion euros ($151 billion) in value-added tax revenue in 2017 due to fraud, bankruptcies, and flawed tax administration procedures, according to the latest figures from the European Commission.

The commission said in a Sept. 5 report on the EU’s ‘VAT gap’ that 2017 VAT losses declined by 7.9 billion euros compared to the loss in 2016 of 145.4 billion euros, continuing a five-year downward trend. The gap is the difference between what EU countries believe they should collect and the actual yield.

• The latest figures for the VAT gap amount to 11.2% of total ...