IP/07/1748

Brussels, 22 November 2007

Modernising fiscal procedures: the European Commission welcomes adoption of the Fiscalis 2013 Programme by the Council

The European Commission welcomes the adoption by the Council of the Fiscalis 2013 programme (see IP/06/639) for the period 2008-2013. The new programme aims at providing Member States with means to better combat tax fraud and to cut compliance costs for traders in the VAT and excise duties areas. It will continue to stimulate cooperation between tax authorities and assist them in developing an appropriate balance between efficiency of controls and burdens on taxable persons. It will also contribute to the development and management of trans-European IT tax systems.

László Kovács, Commissioner for Taxation and Customs said: “I am very happy of the adoption of the Fiscalis 2013 Programme. National tax administrations need to be modernised and to strengthen cooperation in order to be efficient in the fight against fiscal fraud. The Fiscalis 2013 programme will actively contribute to enhance cooperation between tax administrations and to implement IT systems allowing quick exchange of information."

Background information

The Fiscalis 2013 programme will continue the works undertaken under the Fiscalis 2007 programme.

Main objectives of the Fiscalis 2013 programme are:

• Enhancing the fight against tax fraud, in particular against "VAT carrousel fraud";
• Reducing the administrative burden on administrations and taxable persons;
• Ensuring a performing exchange of information between national tax administrations as well as with traders through e.g. trans-European tax IT systems.

At an operational level, the new programme would in particular:

• Boost the effectiveness of the tax administrations via the automation of audit tools;
• Enhance the existing trans-European tax IT systems (in particular VIES^[1]);
• Support the implementation of the Excise Movement Control System (e.g. allowing reduced time for discharge of excise movements of goods to traders) as from mid 2009;
• Support the development of training tools available to all tax administrations.

The new programme's impact ranges far beyond the direct stakeholders which are the national tax administrations of the Member States: the Fiscalis 2013 programme will contribute to more efficient and targeted tax controls by national tax administrations so that reliable traders will benefit from less compliance burden.
The text of the Fiscalis 2013 programme will be made available on the following website after publication in the Official Journal:

http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/detail_dossier_real.cfm?CL=en&DosId=194206
Further information on current taxation community programme is available on the following websites:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/taxation/tax_cooperation/fiscalis_programme/index_en.htm

^[1] VIES : IT system enabling Member States to obtain VAT information on intra-Community transactions. Some VIES data are also accessible to the public via "VIES on the web" which enables internet confirmation of the validity of the VAT identification number of a taxable person