European Council Adopts Measures to Strengthen Anti-Fraud Combat in Relation to VAT

On May 5, the European Council provisionally agreed new rules to strengthen the fight against value added tax (VAT) fraud in the EU in the form of a regulation amending Council Regulation 904/2010 on administrative cooperation and combating VAT fraud. They are aimed at improving cooperation between member states, the European public prosecutor’s office (EPPO) and the European anti-fraud office (OLAF).

The new framework will give EPPO and OLAF more direct access to key VAT data on cross-border business transactions in the EU, including information held by Eurofisc – the EU’s anti-VAT fraud network.

According to the European Commission, cross-border VAT fraud (also referred to as the “carousel fraud”) damages the EU budget by the amount between €12.5 billion and €32.8 billion annually.

EPPO and OLAF will have centralized access on a case-to-case basis to the information they need to launch and support investigations under their competences into suspected cross-border VAT fraud so that the detection of suspicious activities and subsequent investigations could be carried out faster.

The European Parliament s expected to adopt its opinion on the legislative proposal in July 2026, after which the Regulation will enter into force twenty days after its publication.

Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EU) No 904/2010