Implementing the 'destination principle' to intra-EU B2B supplies of goods : feasibility and economic evaluation study : final report

The European Commission has identified two fundamental issues with the current model of taxation: namely the additional compliance costs borne by businesses that conduct cross-border trade when compared to those businesses that only trade domestically and the occurrence of VAT fraud. The European Commission has commissioned EY to conduct a study of five policy options designed to enable the implementation of a destination based VAT system across the EU that to some extent addresses these issues. As part of the study, EY has gathered information from businesses, tax experts, Member States' Tax Authorities and additional sources in order to make a comparison against the current "As Is" taxation model and also determine the impact of the implementation of each of the five proposed policy options. This information aims to assess the impact of the five policy options from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective. To this end, information has been obtained on business compliance costs, tax administration costs, cash flow costs, VAT fraud implications, legislative implications and aspects of practical implementation for each of the five proposed policies. In addition to the collection and analysis of this information, EY has provided a conclusion as to whether the policy options have a potential to address the two fundamental issues and what (if any) impact there will be on the European economy as a whole.