What was actually decided
The EU Council approved an amendment to Regulation 904/2010 on administrative cooperation in VAT matters. The main effect is that EPPO (the European Public Prosecutor's Office) and OLAF (the European Anti-Fraud Office) will gain direct access to VAT data on intra-community transactions, including information held by Eurofisc, the operational network through which national tax authorities exchange real-time signals on VAT fraud.
Until now, both bodies depended on requests submitted to national authorities, a slow and fragmented process. The new framework removes intermediaries and significantly shortens response times.
Formal adoption will follow after the European Parliament issues its opinion, currently expected in July 2026, with the regulation entering into force 20 days after publication in the Official Journal of the EU.
Why this reform matters
Carousel VAT fraud is not a marginal issue. According to the European Commission, the annual cost to member state budgets and the EU budget ranges between €12.5 billion and €32.8 billion, driven overwhelmingly by organised crime groups that systematically exploit information gaps between countries.
The agreement is a complement to the ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) reform adopted in March 2025, which will make VAT reporting for intra-community transactions fully digital by 2030.
What this means in practice for businesses
Intra-community supply chains will come under far greater scrutiny. What matters is no longer just what a company does, but who it works with. If a supplier in the chain shows suspicious behavior in Eurofisc, the entire commercial relationship appears in the same radar.
Investigation timelines will shorten significantly. Where an EPPO case once took months or years to build due to bureaucratic dependencies, direct data access compresses that timeline considerably.
Opaque structures are becoming a liability. Companies with intra-community commercial relationships that lack a clear picture of their VAT position and potential exposure are running out of time to address it.
The EU's direction is consistent: digitalisation, institutional cooperation, and speed of response. Every piece of this puzzle connects into a detection and enforcement system that will look fundamentally different within a few years.
The right time for a VAT compliance review is not when a control notice arrives. It is now.