Introduction In this episode of VAT Talks we had the opportunity to discuss VAT with Menno Griffioen, Lecturer at Business University Nyenrode and Chair Expert Group Transfer Tax (real estate)/Tax Policy Advisor VAT at the Dutch Tax Authority, and Prof. Lisette van der Hel, professor at the Business University Nyenrode and Senior Strategic Advisor at the Dutch Tax Authority. They recently wrote a very interesting article for NLFiscaal asking the question: can digitalisation and technology secure VAT revenues and close the VAT gap?

During the IDSt event in Berlin on the 16th of November, Agustín Míguez Pérez presented the potential directive which is a result of the “VAT in the Digital Age” Initiative. It was meant to be the official presentation but unfortunately due to political circumstances it had to be postponed to next month. Although he could not share everything with us, he was kind enough to give us a good overview of what might come.

We’re honoured that John McCallig, Assistant Professor in the Accountancy Subject Area at the University College Dublin Business School, wanted to talk about VAT, real-time reporting and encryption with us! John does not only have extensive knowledge of the accounting area, but also did extensive research into modern cryptography. For his work on applying cryptography to VAT he even was awarded with the NovaUCD invention of the year award. You are an Assistant Professor in the Accountancy Subject Area, but also interested in encryption.

Introduction The Organisation for Economic Development Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently published a report about e-invoicing. The aim of the report is “to set out some of the core elements of existing “electronic invoicing” systems, and to draw “out some considerations for those exploring possible implementation or reform of such systems”. In the following we address some key findings of the report and will provide our analyses. Getting the definitions straight We have stressed it quite often, for example here, e-invoicing is something different than real-time reporting.

Introduction Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have attracted the interest of investors and the public in the last couple of years because of their skyrocketing price and the possibility of producing revenues for the artists. The increasing price of NFTs has made it apparently also interesting enough for governments to try to levy VAT on these digital assets. In the following, we will analyse how the VAT legislation is being extended in Spain to NFTs and the legal feasibility of this purpose.

Introduction With the rise of cyberattacks, encryption is becoming increasingly important in order to secure business-relevant, public-important or private-sensitive information. More and more companies are adding encryption technology to their security standards. Nevertheless, not all encryption solutions are the same. One important difference is between a form of encryption where secured data is still available to intermediaries and one where data is only available to its owner. The latter would be particularly important in real-time reporting systems, where huge amounts of taxpayers’ data is collected.

Introduction In this episode we had the pleasure to speak with Marloes Lammers and Vanessa Huygen van Dyck-Jagersma from HuygenLammers Advocaten. We’re very thankful that they want to share their knowledge which they gained by handling an enormous amount of VAT fraud cases. We discussed the “knew and should have known” principle, we spoke about the so-called “hit day”, and they explained why engaging in a professional relationship is comparable to marrying someone.

Introduction Recently the European Commission published the long awaited VAT in the Digital Age report. In the following we will discuss and analyse the central finding of the report treating Digital Reporting Requirements (DRR). We argue that the impact of real-time reporting and “e-invoicing” (definition is discussed below) can potentially be quite similar, contrary to the authors of the report. Furthermore, we show how summitto’s solution is a confidential solution for the future VAT system.

Introduction In this episode of VAT Talks we have the honour to speak with Antonino Caccamo who is CTO and co-founder of A-Cube API, an Italian e-invoicing service provider. Previously A-Cube and summitto launched a pilot, showing that summitto’s TX++ could be integrated as corner 5 in a Peppol CTC model. Continue reading to learn more about the Italian e-invoicing system and the Peppol network, and why we should “embrace the revolution” according to Antonino!

Introduction In this episode of VAT Talks we have the honour to speak with Nazar Paradivskyy who is VP Regulatory Affairs at Pagero and CTC Community leader at the OpenPeppol organisation. Therefore Nazar is the perfect person to discuss the latest developments regarding Peppol and CTC. In the article he explains the benefits of e-invoicing and why it is so important for governments to include businesses in discussions around CTC. Furthermore, he gives a bit more information about the status of the Peppol CTC project and explains why he sees “a use case for distributed ledgers as the 5th corner in a Peppol CTC.