Although VAT avoidance and evasion have never really been pushed to the background, those phenomena have received renewed attention following the judgments of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and Opinions of the ECJ's Advocates General in a series of cases (including Optigen, Axel Kittel, Recolta Recycling, Halifax and FTI) which are discussed in this article. It also pays attention to the responses of the Member States, in particular Belgium and the United Kingdom, and of the European Commission to the developments at the highest level of the European Union's judicial system.