Introduction We’re starting the new year with a very exciting episode of VAT Talks as we had the honour to speak with Jānis Taukačs! Jānis is Partner at the Latvian Law Firm Sorainen, part of the EU VAT Club and has its own podcast Tax Stories. As Latvia is planning to introduce e-invoicing in 2025, it’s an excellent time to have a discussion with Jānis about Latvian VAT. Jānis gives valuable insights into the Latvian VAT landscape and provides his view about developments regarding real-time reporting on the EU level.

Introduction Recently we discussed the outcome of the Group of the Future of VAT (GFV) meeting regarding Digital Reporting Requirements (DRR), such as real-time reporting. During the GFV meeting it was concluded that an EU DRR is the most feasible option in order to finally tackle the €134 billion VAT gap. However, several questions posed by the European Commission (EC) were unanswered during the meeting. In the following we will try to address these questions and hope that our view can add to the discussion.

Introduction With an increasing number of EU Member States considering the implementation of real-time reporting, the European Commission is doing everything they can to harmonise this process as much as possible. Discussions between Member States and the EC are ongoing and a recently published summary of the meeting of the Group of the Future of VAT (GFV) in November provides a clear overview of the options that are now on the table.

Image: WiSo Nürnberg, FAU Introduction In this episode of VAT talks, we speak with Roland Ismer, tax law professor at the university of Erlangen-Nuremberg and one of the most prominent VAT specialists in Germany. With Roland, we analyse the latest developments connected to VAT and real-time reporting in Europe and Germany, where the new government coalition led by chancellor Olaf Scholz is planning to introduce a VAT reporting system. Come discover with us his view on data protection and the concept of balance between the interests of a functioning tax administration and those of the taxpayers.

Recently the winning parties of the German elections came to a coalition agreement. The SPD (social democrats), the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (greens) and the FDP (liberals) prepared a 177-page document to present their plans for a “free, just and sustainable” Germany. And lucky for our readers they also talk about VAT! More specifically, they intend to implement real-time reporting: “We will introduce a uniform nationwide electronic reporting system as soon as possible, which will be used for the creation, checking and forwarding of invoices.

Introduction De plus en plus de gouvernements débattent actuellement autour de la meilleure solution de reporting en temps réel. Par le biais de cet article, nous espérons appuyer les gouvernements en leur montrant diverses options de reporting en temps réel. Dans ce qui suit, nous analyserons quatre solutions de reporting en temps réel différentes. Ensuite nous procéderons à la comparaison de celles-ci avec le système développé par summitto : TX++. Nous expliquerons enfin que TX++ peut obtenir les mêmes résultats que n’importe quel autre système de reporting en temps réel, tout en :

Introduction We are extremely proud that in this episode of VAT Talks we spoke with one of the fathers of the first real-time reporting system in the European Union, Rufino de la Rosa. After setting up the Suministro de Información Inmediata (SII), Rufino is now Partner Global Compliance and Reporting at EY. During the interview we discussed the main functionalities of the SII, why the Spanish tax authority decided to implement such a system and how the implementation process looked like.

Introduction As the European Commission is preparing its legislative proposal under the heading of “VAT in the Digital Age” for Q3 2022, we believe it might be a good time to share the advice experts provided to the European Commission throughout our VAT Talks series. We are very thankful that so many experts shared their views on VAT with us. This resulted in advice regarding the use of technology, the need to focus on harmonisation and simplification, and the importance of a continuous dialogue with the business community.

Introduction Many governments all over the world are currently deciding what type of real-time reporting system they want to implement. With this blog post we hope to assist these governments by showing various design options of real-time reporting. In the following we will analyse four different real-time reporting solutions after which we will compare those with summitto’s own real-time reporting solution: TX++. We will explain that TX++ can achieve the same results as any other real-time reporting system, while at the same time:

Introduction Recently the European Parliament published an excellent report discussing how to improve the exchange of information and compliance to reduce the VAT gap. In the following we will provide an overview of the main findings and analyse the conclusions made in the report. We’ll start by discussing the size of the current VAT gap and the amount of VAT fraud committed on an annual basis. At least €50 billion in VAT fraud every year The report rightfully states that it’s difficult to estimate the VAT gap “as by definition it involves the estimation of unobserved variables, such as the compliance rate.