IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sap/wpaper/wp170.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Digital VAT Carousel Fraud: A New Boundary for Criminality

Author

Listed:
  • Fabrizio Borselli
  • Silvia Fedeli
  • Luisa Giuriato

Abstract

The paper analyses the first Value Added Tax (VAT) fraud on Voice over Internet Protocol, the Phuncards-Broker operation, which took place in Italy in 2005-2007. The scheme consists of a chain of frauds on e-services that represents an important evolution of the ""classic"" models of carousel fraud, showing the increasing vulnerabilities of the VAT systems. The authors explore the policy implications for tax authorities, looking at how changes in their strategies may tackle the incentives to participate in the fraud. We argue that, in the short term, information technology (IT) solutions might offer some of the best answers when effectively combined with reverse-charge, while, in the longer-term, an extension of the One-Stop-Shop system may represent a new hypothesis of VAT reform in an anti-fraud perspective.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabrizio Borselli & Silvia Fedeli & Luisa Giuriato, 2015. "Digital VAT Carousel Fraud: A New Boundary for Criminality," Working Papers in Public Economics 170, Department of Economics and Law, Sapienza University of Roma.
    • Handle: RePEc:sap:wpaper:wp170
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.dipecodir.it/wpsap/data/wp170.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sijbren Cnossen, 1998. "Global Trends and Issues in Value Added Taxation," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 5(3), pages 399-428, July.
    2. Hans-Werner Sinn & Andrea Gebauer & Rüdiger Parsche, 2004. "The Ifo Institute’s Model for Reducing VAT Fraud: Payment First, Refund Later," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 5(02), pages 30-34, October.
    3. Sandmo, Agnar, 2005. "The Theory of Tax Evasion: A Retrospective View," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 58(4), pages 643-663, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martin T. Braml & Gabriel J. Felbermayr, 2022. "The EU self-surplus puzzle: an indication of VAT fraud?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(5), pages 1075-1097, October.
    2. Kudrle, Robert T., 2021. "Moves and countermoves in the digitization challenges to international taxation," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Silvia Fedeli & Luisa Giuriato, 2023. "Value added tax non‐compliance in the car market," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(1), pages 85-104, March.
    4. Riccardo Novaro & Massimiliano Piacenza & Gilberto Turati, 2022. "Does money laundering inflate residential house prices? Evidence from the Italian provincial markets," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(4), pages 672-691, November.
    5. Benjami Angles Juanpere, 2019. "Action Plan on VAT: Creating a Single VAT Area in the EU," Eurasian Journal of Economics and Finance, Eurasian Publications, vol. 7(1), pages 1-14.
    6. Schultz, Alison, 2024. "Profit Shifting via Carbon Emission Trading: First Indications," VfS Annual Conference 2024 (Berlin): Upcoming Labor Market Challenges 302426, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Silvia Fedeli & Francesco Forte, 2012. "Border Tax Adjustment without Borders: The EU Carousel of VAT Fraud," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 2, pages 55-70, November.
    2. Silvia Fedeli & Francesco Forte, 2011. "EU VAT frauds," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 143-166, April.
    3. Antonio Gómez Gómez-Plana & Pedro Pascual Arzoz, 2011. "Fraude fiscal e IVA en España: incidencia en un modelo de equilibrio general," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 199(4), pages 9-52, December.
    4. Daniela MITRAN, 2017. "European Trends In Split Vat," Internal Auditing and Risk Management, Athenaeum University of Bucharest, vol. 48(4), pages 43-50, December.
    5. Arun Advani & William Elming & Jonathan Shaw, 2023. "The Dynamic Effects of Tax Audits," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(3), pages 545-561, May.
    6. Paul E. Carrillo & M. Shahe Emran & Anita Rivadeneira, 2011. "Do Cheaters Bunch Together? Profit Taxes, Withholding Rates and Tax Evasion," Working Papers 2011-03, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    7. Haufler, Andreas & Schjelderup, Guttorm, 2004. "Tacit collusion and international commodity taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3-4), pages 577-600, March.
    8. José Mª Durán-Cabré & Alejandro Esteller-Moré, 2014. "Tax professionals' view of the Spanish tax system: efficiency, equity and tax planning," Working Papers 2014/5, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    9. Michael Keen, 2007. "VAT attacks!," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 14(4), pages 365-381, August.
    10. Niklas Harring & Sverker C. Jagers, 2013. "Should We Trust in Values? Explaining Public Support for Pro-Environmental Taxes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-18, January.
    11. Haufler, Andreas & Pflüger, Michael, 2003. "Market structure and the taxation of international trade," Discussion Papers in Economics 106, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    12. Traxler, Christian, 2010. "Social norms and conditional cooperative taxpayers," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 89-103, March.
    13. Basil Dalamagas, 2011. "A Dynamic Approach to Tax Evasion," Public Finance Review, , vol. 39(2), pages 309-326, March.
    14. Angel Solano García, 2015. "Tax Morale with Partisan Parties," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 213(2), pages 83-108, June.
    15. Carrillo, Paul & Emran, M. Shahe, 2018. "Loss Aversion, Transaction Costs, or Audit Trigger? Learning about Corporate Tax Compliance from a Policy Experiment with Withholding Regime," MPRA Paper 87445, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Anna P. Kireenko & Ekaterina N. Nevzorova & Alena F. Kireyeva & Alena S. Filippovich & Ekaterina S. Khoroshavina, 2018. "Lab experiment to investigate tax compliance: the case of future taxpayers' behavior in Russia and Belarus," Journal of Tax Reform, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, vol. 4(3), pages 266-290.
    17. repec:idq:ictduk:14010 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Alstadsæter, Annette & Jacob, Martin, 2013. "The effect of awareness and incentives on tax evasion," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 147, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    19. Bazart, C. & Bonein, A., 2014. "Reciprocal relationships in tax compliance decisions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 83-102.
    20. Zsófia L. Bárány, 2017. "Taxation and self-employment," LIS Working papers 723, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    21. Andreas Knabe & Ronnie Schöb, 2009. "Minimum Wage Incidence: The Case for Germany," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 65(4), pages 403-441, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • K34 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Tax Law
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sap:wpaper:wp170. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Luisa Giuriato (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://ecodir.web.uniroma1.it/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.