Fighting Tax Fraud and Tax Evasion in the EU: The 2012 Action Plan

On 6 December 2012, the European Commission of the European Union (the Commission) presented its Action Plan to strengthen the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion (the Action Plan). The Action Plan contains measures aimed at supporting the Member States of the European Union in the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion. The launch of the Action Plan has already been given attention in the editorial of EC Tax Review, vol. 22, 2013-2.1 This article points out that there are, from a legal point of view, certain shortcomings in the Action Plan, which concern the criminal law aspects of tax fraud and tax evasion and value added tax (VAT) fraud. This article seeks to explore how the Action Plan can recover from these defects. Some suggestions are offered for repairing the shortcomings.