In the world of indirect tax, digitisation and technology along with new mechanisms for tax collection and tax management being introduced by tax authorities, also means rethinking the indirect tax ecosystem within businesses. For example, significant and notable recent developments in indirect tax administration include:
- Agents for tax collection – in the e-commerce and digital services sectors, postal operators, platforms and marketplaces, and financial intermediaries such as banks/credit card companies are held liable for the VAT collection obligation in place of/ on behalf of the business supplying the goods/services.
- E-administration – Enhanced indirect tax reporting through e-invoicing linked directly to tax office systems, SAF-T files, and supplementary reports.
- Data exchange and transparency – Tax authorities exchanging information with counterparties in other countries, with other government agencies e.g., between the Customs authorities and VAT authorities, and with relevant businesses e.g., online platforms, financial institutions, etc to assess compliance.
- Data consolidation and analytics – tax administrations developing consolidation tools which collate taxpayer information held on its various databases to generate reports for risk assessments.
Source: vatglobal.com
