Rapport sur le contrôle coordonné des subventions fiscales

Report ID: 113

Le VIe Congrès de l'EUROSAI, qui s'est tenu à Bonn du 30 mai au 2 juin 2005, a traité du contrôle des recettes publiques par les Institutions supérieures de contrôle (ISC). L'analyse des documents nationaux soumis par les membres de l'EUROSAI avant le congrès a montré, entre autres, que les connaissances sur l'efficacité des subventions fiscales sont encore insuffisantes, a noté l'étendue et la complexité de la législation fiscale qui peut conduire à des insuffisances et à des exceptions fiscales et a conclu que les ISC devraient élaborer des conclusions plus fiables sur le volume et la réalisation des objectifs de ces subventions fiscales.

Le Congrès a donc préconisé la réalisation d'un audit coordonné des subventions fiscales, ouvert à tous les membres de l'EUROSAI. A cet effet, un groupe de travail a été créé afin de coordonner la planification de l'audit et d'en établir le contenu et les rubriques. Les Institutions supérieures de contrôle d'Allemagne, de Chypre, du Danemark, de France, de Finlande, de Hongrie, d'Islande, d'Italie, de Lettonie, de Lituanie, de Pologne, de Roumanie, de la Fédération de Russie, de Suède, de Suisse, de la République slovaque, du Royaume-Uni et des Pays-Bas (observateur) ont participé à l'audit.

Les objectifs de l'audit coordonné étaient les suivants
- Améliorer le partage des connaissances,
- Améliorer la communication entre les membres de l'EUROSAI dans des domaines d'intérêt particulier,
- Obtenir des informations sur les meilleures pratiques,
- Renforcer les réseaux informels,

Afin d'obtenir des résultats comparables, une liste de contrôle a été rédigée, portant sur toutes les étapes d'une subvention fiscale, depuis la législation jusqu'au rapport, en passant par la mise en œuvre. En même temps, cette liste de contrôle a constitué le cadre non contraignant d'un audit de la transparence et des rapports. En outre, trois sous-groupes de travail ont été créés pour traiter des subventions fiscales spécifiques : l'impôt sur le revenu des sociétés, la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée et le rapport sur la transparence et les subventions.

A l'issue des travaux d'audit, le groupe de travail est arrivé à la conclusion que, concernant les subventions fiscales, des améliorations étaient nécessaires dans les domaines de la législation, de l'évaluation et de l'établissement de rapports dans tous les Etats participants, afin de créer la transparence globale qu'il juge nécessaire tant pour le législateur que pour le grand public.

Source:https://www.eurosai.org/en/working-groups/historic-working-groups-committees/coordinated-audit-on-tax-subsidies-working-group/index.html

Audit parallel on Intra Community VAT Fraud

Report ID: 133

1.1 Background to the joint audit

The current vat system in the European Union provides opportunities for intra Community fraud that all Member States have to deal with. In a resolution of 12 December 2006, the Contact Committee expressed support for its vat Working Group’s recommendation to encourage Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) to exercise bi and multilateral cooperation in this area. In response to this recommendation, in March 2007 the Netherlands Court of Audit invited Germany’s Supreme Audit Institution (Bundesrechnungshof) and the Belgian Court of Audit (Rekenhof) to participate in an investigation into intra-Community vat fraud.

This trilateral audit resulted in national reports for each of the three participating countries and in this joint report presenting the overall conclusions and recommendations supported by relevant audit observations. Institutions involved in tackling intra-Community vat fraud, at European level and in the Member States, may benefit from this report.

1.2 Explanation of intra-Community vat fraud

The EU Member States have a common vat system. Since the European internal market has been created in 1993, goods within the internal market can be traded freely and border controls have ceased to exist. A ‘temporary’ system was introduced for vat, whereby the zero rate applies to the supply of goods to another Member State. To be eligible for this zero rate, an entrepreneur must have a valid vat identification number and must be able to verify that its trading partner also has a valid vat identification number. In addition to the vat return, entrepreneurs must file a quarterly return of their intra-Community supplies so that they can be monitored.

The temporary vat system appears to be vulnerable to intra-Community fraud.

A simple form of fraud is the wrongful use of the zero rate by presenting a domestic supply as an intra-Community supply. The most common and widespread form of intra-Community vat fraud is ‘Missing Trader Intra-Community Fraud’ (mtic Fraud) or ‘Carousel fraud’. In the typical form of this fraud, a trader acquires goods from a trader in another EU Member State at the zero rate of vat. The trader sells on the goods within his own country and charges vat to the purchaser. The trader, however, does not remit this vat to the tax authorities and makes sure that he cannot be traced (‘missing trader’) if he is investigated. The receiver of the goods sells them on and reclaims the vat he has paid. The goods can then return to their country of origin via an intra-Community supply at the zero rate, so that the cycle can be repeated one or more times. This is why it is called carousel fraud.

1.3 Anti-vat fraud initiatives at EU level

For a number of years, the eu Member States, the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of the EU (Ecofin) and the European Commission (EC) have been discussing ways to counteract intra-Community vat fraud more effectively.6 The Commission has explored avenues for a coordinated strategy against tax fraud. In its meeting of 28 November 2006, Ecofin invited the Commission to prepare the elements of such a strategy in close cooperation with the Member States. In 2007, the Commission made an inventory of possible measures consisting of conventional measures within the existing VAT framework and more far-reaching measures, implying a change in the current system.

Bericht über die Abgestimmte Prüfung von Steuersubventionen

Report ID: 169

Der VI. EUROSAI-Kongress, der vom 30. Mai bis 2. Juni 2005 in Bonn stattfand, befasste sich mit der Prüfung der öffentlichen Einnahmen durch die Obersten Rechnungskontrollbehörden (ORKB). Die Analyse der von den EUROSAI-Mitgliedern im Vorfeld des Kongresses eingereichten Länderpapiere zeigte u.a., dass das Wissen über die Wirksamkeit von Steuersubventionen noch unzureichend ist, wies auf den Umfang und die Komplexität der Steuergesetzgebung hin, die zu Steuerausfällen und Steuerausnahmen führen können, und kam zu dem Schluss, dass die ORKB verlässlichere Erkenntnisse über den Umfang und die Zielerreichung solcher Steuersubventionen erarbeiten sollten.

Der Kongress sprach sich daher für die Durchführung einer koordinierten Prüfung von Steuersubventionen aus, die allen EUROSAI-Mitgliedern offen steht. Zu diesem Zweck wurde eine Arbeitsgruppe eingerichtet, die die Planung der Prüfung koordiniert und deren Inhalte und Rubriken festlegt.

Die Obersten Rechnungskontrollbehörden Deutschlands, Zyperns, Dänemarks, Frankreichs, Finnlands, Ungarns, Islands, Italiens, Lettlands, Litauens, Polens, Rumäniens, der Russischen Föderation, Schwedens, der Schweiz, der Slowakischen Republik, des Vereinigten Königreichs und der Niederlande (Beobachter) nahmen an der Prüfung teil.

Die Ziele des koordinierten Audits waren:

- Verbesserung des Wissensaustauschs,

- Verbesserung der Kommunikation zwischen den EUROSAI-Mitgliedern in Bereichen von besonderem Interesse,

- Gewinnung von Informationen über bewährte Praktiken,

- Stärkung der informellen Netzwerke,

Um vergleichbare Ergebnisse zu erzielen, wurde eine Checkliste erstellt, die alle Phasen einer Steuervergünstigung von der Gesetzgebung über die Umsetzung bis hin zur Berichterstattung behandelt. Gleichzeitig bildete diese Checkliste den unverbindlichen Rahmen für eine Prüfung der Transparenz und Berichterstattung. Darüber hinaus wurden drei Arbeitsuntergruppen eingerichtet, die sich mit spezifischen Steuersubventionen befassen: Körperschaftssteuer, Mehrwertsteuer und Transparenz- und Subventionsbericht.

Nach Abschluss der Prüfungsarbeiten kam die Arbeitsgruppe zu dem Schluss, dass in Bezug auf Steuersubventionen in allen Teilnehmerstaaten Verbesserungen in den Bereichen Gesetzgebung, Bewertung und Berichterstattung erforderlich sind, um die allgemeine Transparenz zu schaffen, die sie sowohl für den Gesetzgeber als auch für die Öffentlichkeit für notwendig hält.

QUELLE: https://www.eurosai.org/es/working-groups/historic-working-groups-committees/coordinated-audit-on-tax-subsidies-working-group/

The Government?s Preparation and Statement of Tax Expenditure (2007:3)

Report ID: 206

The Government can choose to give support or assistance to businesses and households through different types of allowances, grants or subsidies or through concessions (exemptions and special provisions) in the tax system. Such exemptions and special provisions in the tax system are called tax expenditures. Tax expenditures are the estimated cost to the unrealized tax revenue, which means that this cost is less visible than the cost of other forms of support and allowance.

In connection with the Swedish budget reform which took place in the mid-1990s, the Government established that an important requirement to assist a new, more efficient budget process would be for all exemptions and special provisions resulting in a reduction in revenue to be subjected to equally close scrutiny as the general expenditure appropriations. In order for this to be possible, the support given in the form of tax expenditures must be rendered visible.

Accordingly, since 1996 the Government has compiled an inventory of tax expenditures in a statement of tax expenditure appended to the Spring Fiscal Policy Bill. The objective of the statement is both to render visible the indirect support entailed by the tax expenditures and to provide a foundation for prioritising between different types of support.

In the 2006 statement, support in the form of tax expenditures is estimated at approximately 12 per cent of the total tax revenue, or approximately SEK 170 billion. So the tax expenditures amount to significant sums. At the same time, tax expenditures do not compete for scope in the budget in the same way as general expenditure appropriations. Nor are tax expenditures scrutinised and evaluated with the same regularity as general expenditure appropriations.

Since tax expenditures entail lower tax revenues, they have the same effect on the balance of the central government budget as support on the expenditure side of the budget. With the aim of maintaining good budgetary discipline, there is thus reason to set equally strict requirements for the preparation and accounting for new and existing tax expenditures as for the preparation and accounting for expenditure appropriations.

Report on the Coordinated Audit on Tax Subsidies (in Russian)

Report ID: 397

The VI EUROSAI Congress held in Bonn from 30 May to 2 June 2005 dealt with the audit of public revenues by Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs).The analysis of the country papers submitted by EUROSAI’s members prior to the congress showed, among others,  that there was still  insufficient knowledge about the effectiveness of tax subsidies, noted the extent and complexity of tax legislation that can lead to tax shortfalls and tax exceptions and concluded that SAIs should develop more reliable findings about the volume and target achievement of such tax subsidies.

The Congress therefore advocated conducting a coordinated audit of tax subsidies that was open to all EUROSAI members. For that purpose, a Working Group was set up to coordinate the planning of the audit and to establish the contents and headings of it.

The Supreme Audit Institutions of Germany, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovak Republic, United Kingdom and Netherlands (observer) participated in the audit.

The objectives of the coordinated audit were:

• Enhancing the sharing of knowledge,
• Enhancing communication between EUROSAI Members in areas of special interest,
• Obtaining best practice information,
• Strengthening informal networks,

To obtain comparable results, a checklist was drafted that addressed all stages of a tax subsidy from legislation via implementation up to reporting. At the same time, this checklist formed the non-binding framework for an audit of transparency and reporting. Furthermore, three Working Sub-Groups were set up to deal with specific tax subsidies: Corporate Income Tax , Value Added Tax and Transparency and Subsidy Report.

After completing audit work, the Working Group came to the conclusion that, concerning tax subsidies, improvements were needed in the fields of legislation, evaluation and reporting in all participant states in order to create the overall transparency which it considered necessary both for the legislator and the general public.

SOURCE: https://www.eurosai.org/en/working-groups/historic-working-groups-committees/coordinated-audit-on-tax-subsidies-working-group/index.html

*This report is also available in the catalogue in English, Spanish, German and French.