How is it that a problem that costs all of us billions cannot find a quick agreement between governments to solve it.
Surely this is not a case of not being happy that it is someone else´s idea?
France is losing between £200m-£1.3bn and yet they are still putting in obstacles to an agreement.
Who can understand this one!
Onésimo Alvarez-Moro
See article:
France is holding up plans by Gordon Brown to tackle a multibillion-pound value added tax scam, weeks after the chancellor told MPs he had reached a deal with Paris.
Mr Brown announced on December 13 he had “an agreement” with France to introduce a special tax regime to stop fraudsters skimming off £2bn-£3bn from the trade in mobile phones and computer chips.
The chancellor claimed the new “reverse charge” VAT system applied to those goods would cut fraud sharply, but the Financial Times has learnt France still refuses to approve the scheme.
UK Treasury officials said on Tuesday that France had raised fresh “technical issues”, in effect blocking the new tax regime that has to be agreed by all 27 European Union member states.
The blockage will be costly for the UK and an embarrassment for Mr Brown, who believed he had personal assurances from Thierry Breton, French finance minister, that the scheme could go ahead.
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