The European Commission commissioned EY to estimate the average tax related compliance costs arising from individual cross-border activities. This is with a view to understanding the tax related obstacles that exist for individuals whose economic activities are of a cross border nature. The main objective is to help understand which Member States’ tax systems seem to operate more cost effectively than others and provide evidence of the financial strain generated by tax related compliance costs (excluding the cost of the tax) to individuals within the European Union. Four cross border cases were selected to form the focus of the study. Each of these cases is further broken down into “A” and “B”. “A” represents incoming individuals while “B” represents outgoing individuals: - Case 1 – A person who lives in Member State (MS) 1 with his wife and children in a house that they own but who works in Member State 2 from which he receives almost all of family’s income; - Case 2 – A person who has lived in MS 1 with his wife and children in a house that they own but who then moves with his family to MS 2 to work. They sell their home but they keep a summer house in MS 1 which they let for most of the year; - Case 3 – A retired couple who move from MS 1 to MS 2. They keep their house in MS 1 and also have a house in MS 2. They each receive a pension from MS 1, one for work in the public sector and the other for work in the private sector; and - Case 4 – A retired couple who move from MS 1 to MS 2. They keep their house in MS 1 and also have a house in MS 2. When one of them dies bequests are left to the remaining partner (immovable property in MS 1 and MS 2) as well as to their children who live in MS 1 (movable property located in MS 1 and MS 2). We compare the compliance burden of these cross border cases to a purely domestic case which is defined as follows: - Purely domestic case: This is general tax compliance case without any cross border implications.