Since mid-May 2019, EU Member States are able to use a new electronic tool that is expected to detect VAT fraud at an early stage. The Transaction Network Analysis (TNA) is an automated data mining tool that interconnects Member States’ tax IT platforms. In this way, cross-border transaction information can be quickly and easily accessed, and suspicious VAT fraud can be reported nearly in real time.

Besides closer cooperation between the EU’s network of anti-fraud experts (“Eurofisc”), when analysing information on carousel VAT fraud, TNA also boosts cooperation and information exchange between national tax officials. Eurofisc officials can now cross-check information against criminal records, databases, and information held by Europol and OLAF.

TNA is another EU tool to make the collection of VAT more fraudproof. In the midterm, the Commission hopes to reach consensus on a more fundamental overhaul of the EU’s VAT legislation (see eucrim 4/2017, pp. 168-169).