A common mugger might snatch an iPhone from your hand, or
swindle you out of the cash in your wallet. But all the muggers in
Europe probably couldn't steal the value that EU countries lose
to VAT fraud, and that's because that number is estimated to be
a staggering €40-100 billion per year.
Estimates say that 9% of VAT owed in Spain never makes it to the
Spanish government. In Greece, it's as high as
28%.[1] This is no small problem, obviously, and in the
current age of tax transparency and digital power, percentages like
these seem embarrassingly anachronistic.
Like many of my colleagues I'm a FinTech and RegTech
fanatic, and as such have been following (and, where possible,
using and helping develop) the newest technologies of this exciting
epoch in which we're living. More officially, I'm a tax
expert who's been in the business for over 25 years. These
interests combined, I can't help but notice when technology
poses an elegant solution to a significant tax
