Slovenia is among the seven EU countries which reduced their VAT gaps by two to four percentage points, with the country bringing it down by around three percentage points to 3.5%.

The most successful country in this respect was Malta, which reduced its VAT gap by seven percentage points, followed by Poland (six points) and Cyprus (four points).

In 2017, the biggest VAT gaps were registered in Romania (36%), Greece (34%) and Lithuania (25%), and the smallest in Sweden, Luxembourg and Cyprus, where the shares stood around 1%.

The study shows that the EU member states lost a total of EUR 137.5 billion in uncollected value added tax in 2017, which is EUR 8 billion less than in the year before in nominal terms.

That year, the amount represented 11.2% of total VAT revenue in the entire EU, which is one percentage points down compared to 2016, the European Commission said.

The trend of the decreasing VAT gap was observed for the fifth year in a row in 2017, and a preliminary estimate for last year suggests that the gap is to decrease further and drop below EUR 130 billion or 10% of the expected VAT revenue.