16/07/2019
The EU encourages e-commerce to ensure that businesses
and consumers can buy and sell internationally on the
internet as they do on their local markets. Member States
are responsible for the collection of VAT and customs duties
due on e-commerce cross-border transactions. We carried
out this audit because any shortfall in the collection of VAT
and customs duties affects the budgets of the Member
States and the EU, as they must compensate for it in
proportion to their GNI. Our auditors examined whether the
European Commission has established a sound regulatory
and control framework for e-commerce with regard to the
collection of VAT and customs duties, and whether Member
States’ control measures help ensure the complete
collection of VAT and customs duties on e-commerce. We
found that despite recent positive developments the EU is
not currently dealing adequately with these issues but have
addressed some of the weaknesses identified with the
“e-commerce package”.
We make a number of recommendations as to how the
European Commission and the Member States should
better address the challenges identified and establish a
sound regulatory and control framework.
Special Report no 12/2019: E-commerce: many of the challenges of collecting VAT and customs duties remain to be resolved
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