The report is prepared jointly by DG ECFIN and DG TAXUD of the European Commission. As the previous editions, the report analyses recent trends in tax revenues and tax reforms in EU Member States. This year's edition focuses on the concept of quality of taxation and the identification of tax policy challenges faced by euro-area Member States.

The report examines the tax structure as one important aspect of the multi-faceted concept of the quality of taxation and discusses elements of a "good" tax system. Applying an indicator based approach, it analyses three types of challenges that euro-area Member States are currently facing in the area of tax policy: i) the potential need to address severe fiscal consolidation challenges also on the revenue side of the budget, ii) the potential to make the tax structure more growth friendly and iii) ways to improve the design of individual types of taxes.