Tax authorities take VAT non compliance very seriously. That should be no surprise. VAT is the most common indirect tax in the world and an increasingly important source of revenue.
Authorities are also becoming much more innovative in the techniques they use to detect noncompliance, from real-time reporting to advanced machine learning that detects anomalies. In addition, cooperation between agencies in different countries makes cross-border value added tax fraud harder to achieve.
This is important to recognise even for businesses that are committed to meeting their VAT compliance requirements. VAT is complex and, without effective processes in place, businesses run the risk of accidental VAT non compliance.
Source VATit