SLOVAKIA has the second highest tax evasion rate of EU-member states due to non-compliance or non-collection in 2012. The country has lost 39 percent of expected VAT revenues; only Romania placed lower with 44 percent, the SITA newswire reported on October 23.
An estimated €177 billion in VAT revenues was lost due to non-compliance or non-collection in 2012, according to the latest VAT Gap study published by the European Commission (EC) on October 23. This equates to 16 percent of total expected VAT revenue out of 26 Member States, according to an EC press release. Latest data are not yet available.
The VAT Gap marked a substantial increase in Slovakia during 2012, growing from 33 percent to 39 percent of the VAT Total Tax Liability (VTTL), according to report.
“The main driver of the increase was a substantial reduction in VAT revenues, which declined by over 8 percent in nominal terms, while the VTTL rose by a modest 1.4 percent, somewhat below the nominal growth of the economy,” reads the report. “Slovakia thus remains one of the countries with the highest VAT Gap in the EU-26 countries surveyed in this report.”
On the other hand, in its proposals for 2014 time the EC appreciated that Slovakia improved its legislation in order to decrease tax evasion which also contributed to a general decrease of the country’s deficit, according to the TASR newswire.
(Source: SITA, EC, TASR)
Compiled by Roman Cuprik from press reports
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