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Sovos indirect tax
5 Key Takeaways from the State of Indirect Tax

The State of Indirect Tax, featuring IDC, was a three-session event hosted by Sovos on April 7. It covered IDC’s thoughts on the current and future state of indirect tax, the biggest trends and changes from a regulatory perspective and the importance of aligning your IT and tax teams in your compliance strategy. The sessions […]

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Reciprocity Agreements and Why They Matter When Recovering VAT
Reciprocity Agreements and Why They Matter When Recovering VAT

Sovos recently hosted an online webinar on VAT recovery where we covered reciprocity agreements between the UK and EU Member States when making 13th Directive VAT refund claims. One of the questions that kept coming up is what are reciprocity agreements and why do they matter? Reciprocity When making 13th Directive refund claims, each EU […]

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How to Prepare for a VAT Audit
How to Prepare for a VAT Audit

Our previous articles covered audit trends we have noticed at Sovos and common triggers of a VAT audit. This article discusses the best practices on how to prepare for a VAT audit. Each country and jurisdiction may have different laws and requirements related to the VAT audit process. Tax authorities can carry out audits in […]

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The Effect of Inflation on VAT Rates
The Effect of Inflation on VAT Rates

It’s no surprise that inflation is on the forefront of everyone’s mind, with prices continuing to sky-rocket month by month. Data from the United Kingdom shows that the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation jumped to a 40-year high of 9% in the past 12 months. Governments around the world are looking for ways to reduce […]

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Common Triggers of a VAT Audit
Common Triggers of a VAT Audit

Since many audits seem to occur at random, it’s not always possible to identify the reason why a tax office would decide to initiate one. We’ve previously spoken about an increased interest in audits from the EU and audits for e-commerce. This article covers the most common reasons behind a VAT audit to help businesses […]

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VAT for Virtual Events – Exemption, Hybrid Events and Reduced Rates
VAT for Virtual Events – Exemption, Hybrid Events and Reduced Rates

In a recent blog, we considered the upcoming changes to the VAT treatment of virtual events. Today, we will consider some of the issues that may arise. Exemption from VAT Many hosts currently use the available educational or fundraising exemptions, especially where the delegates are private individuals without the right of deduction, e.g., doctors. For […]

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Trends in VAT Audits - Increased Interest From the EU
Trends in VAT Audits – Increased Interest From the EU

A recent report released by the European Commission has stressed the need for Member States to increase the number of audits they undertake, particularly in e-commerce businesses. The European Commission specifically highlighted the need for Malta, Austria and France to make additional efforts to improve their value-added tax audit practices. They highlighted the seriousness of […]

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Eastern European Jurisdictions CTC update
Eastern European Jurisdictions: CTC update

Eastern European countries are taking new steps concerning the implementation of continuous transaction controls (CTC) systems to reduce the VAT gap and combat tax fraud. This blog provides you with information on the latest developments in several Eastern European countries that may further shape the establishment of CTC systems in other European countries and beyond. […]

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Virtual Events and the Risk of Double Taxation
New Place of Supply Rules for Virtual Attendance of Events

Events and conferences typically take a long time to organise and in the early part of 2020 several events that were scheduled to take place were impossible because of the various Covid-19 restrictions. Looking at a loss of revenue, and not knowing how long restrictions would last, many hosts went online and hosted virtual events. […]

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Will the Middle East be Next to Accelerate CTCs
Will the Middle East be Next to Accelerate CTCs?

Over the past decade, the Middle East region has undergone impactful financial and fiscal changes. VAT was introduced as one of the solutions to prevent the impact of decreasing oil prices on the economy after the region’s economic performance started to slow down. After realising the benefits of VAT to the economy, the next step […]

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E-Commerce VAT Compliance Outside the EU – Low Value Goods
E-Commerce VAT Compliance Outside the EU – Low Value Goods

E-businesses have recently been dealing with the change of rules within the EU with the introduction of the E-Commerce VAT Package but it’s also important to ensure compliance requirements are being met globally. In this blog we look at some of the low value goods regimes that have been introduced over the last few years […]

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Update European Union Reduced VAT Rates Adopted
Update: European Union Reduced VAT Rates Adopted

On 5 April 2022, the EU Council formally adopted changes to the current rules governing reduced VAT rates for goods and services. These amendments to the VAT Directive were published in the Official Journal of the EU on 6 April 2022 through Council (EU) Directive 2022/542 of 5 April 2022 and are effective immediately. The […]

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Norway Considers Applying VAT to Cross-Border Non-Digital Services
Norway: Cross-Border VAT Updates

Update: 31 January 2023 by Lorenza Barone Norway extends VAT obligation to Cross-Border Non-Digital Services Norway’s Ministry of Finance has updated legislation involving remotely deliverable services by foreign suppliers. This is effective from 1 January 2023. In 2022, the Ministry proposed to amend the Norwegian VAT Act regarding cross-border business-to-consumer (B2C) sales of non-digital services. […]

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Italy Expands its E-invoicing Mandate
Italy Expands its E-invoicing Mandate

The Italian government has taken important steps to broaden the scope of its e-invoicing mandate, more specifically by widening the scope of taxpayers subject to electronic invoice issuance and clearance obligations, starting 1 July 2022. On 13 April 2022, the draft Law-Decree, known as the second part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Decreto […]

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The EU E-Commerce VAT Package – What Have We Learned Nine Months On?
The EU E-Commerce VAT Package – What Have We Learned Nine Months On?

It’s been just over nine months since the introduction of one of the biggest changes in EU VAT rules for e-commerce retailers, the E-Commerce VAT Package extending the One Stop Shop (OSS) and introducing the Import One Stop Shop (IOSS). The goal of the EU E-commerce VAT Package is to simplify cross-border B2C trade in […]

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Streamlining VAT Reporting with OSS
Streamlining VAT Reporting with OSS

E-commerce continues to grow, and tax authorities globally have struggled to keep pace. Tax authorities developed many VAT systems before the advent of e-commerce in its current format and the evolution of the internet. Around the world this has resulted in changes to ensure that taxation occurs in the way that the government wants, removing […]

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Philippines Advances Towards Mandatory CTC Reporting
Philippines Advances Towards Mandatory CTC Reporting

The Philippines continues in constant advance towards implementing its continuous transaction controls (CTC) system, which consists of near real-time reporting of electronically issued invoices and receipts. On 4 April, testing began in the Electronic Invoicing System (EIS), the government’s platform, with six companies selected as pilots for this project. The initial move toward a CTC […]

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Poland Moves Towards Mandatory E-Invoicing with EU Derogation and E-Invoicing App Testing

Transition from voluntary to mandatory e-invoicing expected from 1 April 2023 From 1 January 2022, taxpayers have been able to issue structured invoices (e-invoices) using Poland’s National e-Invoicing System (KSeF) on a voluntary basis, meaning electronic and paper forms are still acceptable in parallel. Introduction of the KSeF system is part of the digital transformation […]

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