Introduction In this week’s blog post, we had the pleasure to discuss VAT with Tiina Ruohola. Tiina is Senior Adviser Indirect Taxes at EK - Confederation of Finnish Industries and in that capacity also member of the VAT Expert Group. Learn everything about e-invoicing in Finland and what she believes is a correct balance regarding data sharing with the tax authority. She rightfully states that “all information required should always be reasonable and actually used, not just collected.

Introduction Real-time reporting is picking up pace in more and more countries in order to reduce VAT fraud and increase compliance. In our previous blog posts, we have highlighted many benefits of real-time reporting for businesses and tax authorities. This time, we want to take a different approach: we ask VAT experts. Through our VAT talks, we have collected an incredible amount of precious information on real-time reporting developments, ways of implementation, its benefits and its weaknesses.

Introduction In this episode of VAT Talks we discuss VAT with Raul Zambrano (Director of Technical Assistance and Technology of the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations at CIAT) and Vinicius Pimentel de Freitas (Tax Auditor of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) and Coordinator of the Brazilian Electronic Invoice programs). Both are experts regarding the various implementations of e-invoicing/real-time reporting in Latin America. Raul and Vinicius first of all emphasise that e-invoicing systems in Latin America “require sending information directly to the tax administration”.

In this episode of VAT Talks we meet with Andrea Parolini, member of the VAT Expert Group. Andrea has an enormous experience in the VAT world, being a professor at the Catholic University of Milan and legal and economic adviser to the Italian government between 2014 and 2016, when the Italian Sistema di Interscambio (SDI) was conceived. Join us to discover how real-time reporting was developed in Italy and learn about its results so far.

Confidentiality has a special place in our discussions with VAT experts. We are aware of the potential impact of ransomware attacks and data breaches on the economic activity of businesses and entire countries. This is why we developed a confidential real-time reporting solution. We have seen that tax administrations are starting to reduce the amount of data they collect. Nevertheless, this could get them into a very difficult situation as the less data collected the less useful the system becomes.

We are honoured to have VAT expert Charles de Wet joining us on this episode of our VAT Talks. Charles has almost 30 years of experience in VAT across South Africa and Africa, which he gained in the South African Revenue Service, numerous positions within PwC and most recently at ENSafrica, Africa’s biggest law firm. We are excited to hear more about his fascination regarding VAT and being taken on a journey of his favourite experiences in three decades.

We are honored to speak with Richard Asquith on this episode of our VAT Talks. He is an awarded VAT expert working as VP Global Indirect Tax at Avalara and writes the daily Avalara global blog that is read by over 1 million readers per year. Richard entered the VAT world because he was promised a calm work life but since he entered 30 years ago, his work life has been everything but calm.

Summary We are honoured that VAT expert Aleksandra Bal wanted to join us on this episode of VAT Talks. Aleksandra has years of experience in both the field of taxation and technology. Besides being fluent in multiple programming languages, she holds a PhD in International Taxation as well as other degrees. Luckily for us, she loves to share her knowledge! In the following Aleksandra first explains what she finds so interesting about VAT and that by now “technology is indispensable for the operation of any VAT system”, because it’s almost not possible to comply without using it.

Summary In this episode of VAT Talks we speak with Branislav Kovac. Branislav is a tax partner at VGD Slovakia, a Bratislava based advisory company. In the following Branislav will explain how Slovakia achieved to significantly decrease the VAT gap during the last few years. Nevertheless, he also points out that the VAT gap is still at 20%. Therefore, the Slovak government is planning to implement real-time reporting. Branislav argues that real-time reporting is a valuable tool to further reduce the VAT gap but it should not come with additional burdens for businesses.

Summary Poland is one of the most innovative countries in the EU when it comes to closing the VAT gap. We are pleased to discuss Poland’s VAT landscape with Piotr Arak, Director of the Polish Economic Institute. He tells us that by implementing stricter measures, Poland was able to reduce its VAT gap from 24.7% in 2015 to 8% to 9% in 2020. During this time frame, it introduced a Split Payment scheme, a Single Audit File for Tax (SAF-T) and the technical system STIR that sends real-time data from businesses to tax authorities.