The European VAT Experience : VAT in a Common Market: Lessons for the GCC

This paper is based on a presentation to the GCC VAT conference, hosted by the Dubai Economic Council in Dubai in November 2008. The paper provides a background knowledge of EU Value Added Tax (VAT), focusing on the way in which the EU VAT deals with the common market. The EU has the longest and most extensive experience in operating a harmonized VAT system in a common market and as a result a basic knowledge of the EU VAT is likely to be of assistance to policy makers in designing a common VAT framework for the GCC.Section II explains the role VAT played in the EU internal market integration process and the elements of the continued integration process that in turn contributed to the development of EU VAT. Section III discusses the basic characteristics of EU VAT, comparing it with a “model” or “best practice” VAT. Section IV deals with one aspect of EU VAT in particular, the intra-EU trade arrangements. These arrangements, and especially the fraudulent use that has been made of them in recent years, continue to be at the forefront of VAT debate in Europe. These issues will be of particular importance to the GCC if it intends to operate a common VAT in a borderless common market without a centralized VAT administration. Section V concludes by providing some useful lessons from the European VAT experience, which the GCC might wish to consider when designing a common VAT framework for its common market