In this episode of VAT Talks we speak with Peter Potters, Chief Commercial Officer and Co-owner of the Dutch bookkeeping software provider Informer. As Informer is one of the most innovative bookkeeping software providers in the Netherlands, Peter is the perfect person to discuss the latest industry developments with. In the following we discuss why Peter decided to join Informer after 20 years of working with Unilever, why there are still not many companies in the Netherlands that make use of e-invoicing and why we should be very careful when it comes to sharing data with governments.

There is an even bigger threat to your invoice information you are not yet aware of, even if no public security hacks have been reported. Both on our blog and on our Twitter account, we often stress the importance of data security. Failures of this security can lead to data breaches which can result in significant costs for companies. This is especially relevant when we are talking about invoice information, as this contains pricing information.

Cyrille Sautereau possède une grande expérience dans le secteur de la facturation électronique. Par exemple, il a créé une des premières entreprises françaises qui offre les services de facturation électronique (Deskom, désormais Cegedim). Dans cet article, il donne une explication détaillée du paysage de la facturation électronique en France, montrant que encore seulement 10% à 15% de toutes les factures sont électronique sous forme structurée, ce qui fait illustre d’autant plus l’importance d’une obligation réglementaire de passer à la facturation électronique inter-entreprises.

After we discussed the plans to implement mandatory e-invoicing in France with Laurent Poigt, in this episode of VAT Talks we speak with Cyrille Sautereau, chair of the Forum National de la Facturation Électronique et des Marchés Publics Électroniques (FNFE-MPE) and CEO of ADMAREL Conseil. Executive summary Cyrille Sautereau has vast experience in the e-invoicing sector, creating one of the first e-invoicing service providers in France (Deskom). In this article he first gives a detailed explanation of the e-invoicing landscape of France, showing that still only around 10% of all invoices are ‘fully structured e-invoices’ which shows the importance of the upcoming mandatory e-invoicing regime.

Previously we analysed the outcomes of the Fiscalis workshop where real-time reporting was discussed. We showed how summitto’s solution could help solve many issues that were raised during the workshop. However, some questions remained which were posed to the VAT Expert Group (VEG). With this blog post, we hope we can help by providing feedback on these questions. In the following we try to answer questions around (1) design, (2) harmonisation, (3) transmission of the invoices and (4) benefits for business.

At summitto, we start our day with a fresh shot of VAT news via VAT Update. We’re sure that a lot of VAT professionals developed the same ritual. That’s why we’re very pleased to be able to discuss VAT with one of the founders of VAT Update, Kelvin Hulsebos! In this episode of VAT Talks we spoke about VAT Update, the latest VAT news and real-time reporting in the European Union.

Real-time reporting, Continuous Transaction Controls (CTC), Transaction based reporting (TBR). Whatever you want to call it, it’s a hot topic! We recently saw many countries implementing such systems, with France being the latest European Union (EU) Member State to decide so. Furthermore, real-time reporting is also high on the agenda of the European Commission (EC) as one could have read in July’s Tax Package.[1] The publication of the results of the latest Fiscalis[2] workshop makes this even more clear.

This episode of VAT Talks is all about France. Recently the French tax authority released a report ‘VAT in the Digital Age’ in which the method of implementation of mandatory e-invoicing combined with e-reporting is proposed. The decision of the French government shows once more that real-time reporting is quickly becoming the standard throughout the European Union and the world. We’re honoured that Laurent Poigt, Partner in the VAT team of PwC Société d’Avocats, took the time to analyse the report with us.

In today’s episode of VAT Talks we discuss digital reporting requirements (summitto’s confidential real-time reporting system falls under this umbrella term) with Michel Schrauwen, Managing Partner Indirect Taxes at Deloitte, and Oscar Smeets, Senior Manager Indirect Tax at Deloitte and lecturer at Tilburg University. Together they wrote an excellent article about the potential benefits of digital reporting requirements for the Netherlands, cautiously concluding that the Dutch government could save at least €1.

In previous blog posts we explained how our real-time reporting system (sometimes called CTC system) is able to reduce VAT fraud and close the VAT gap without collecting any actual invoice data. Our system has many similarities to existing real- and near-time reporting systems (after this referred to as a ‘reporting system’), which an increasing number of EU Member States are implementing. We support this development as we believe that reporting has really proved to be an excellent tool to close the VAT gap.