Blog

Italy has been at the forefront of B2G e-invoicing in Europe ever since the central e-invoicing platform SDI (Sistema di Interscambio) was rolled out and made mandatory for all suppliers to the public sector in 2014. While a number of its European neighbors are slowly catching up, Italy is continuing to improve the integration of […]

Anyone who has been closely following SAF-T announcements over the past few years may be forgiven for thinking that it all seems rather like Groundhog Day.  Commencement dates and reporting requirements have been announced and subsequently amended and re-announced as the respective countries re-evaluate their needs and the readiness of companies to provide the data […]

The French Minister of Public Accounts and Action, which has authority over all tax matters, has taken advantage of the process that is required to transpose the EU E-Commerce Directive to launch a number of initiatives to curb VAT fraud, including a renewed attempt to create a system of mandatory e-invoicing. Going from B2G to […]

An insurer may need to reclaim insurance premium tax (IPT) from a tax authority for many reasons. These include a policy cancellation or mid-term adjustment, an administrative error or issuing a no claims bonus. In each case, it’s important to be aware of the issues involved ahead of any reclaim to ensure taxes are recovered […]

To help reduce delays in the payment of invoices, the French authorities by Ordinance No. 2019-359 of 24 April 2019 have clarified their invoicing rules to include two new mandatory content requirements.  These are in addition to those already in place. The two new requirements stipulated in the France invoice mandate are: 1) To provide […]

Since Italy’s electronic invoicing mandate was introduced at the start of this year, suppliers performing cross-border transactions have been exempt from this obligation.  This is about to change as Italy and the enclaved country of San Marino will shortly agree on mutual mechanisms to allow the use of e-invoices for transactions between the two countries […]

Clearance-model e-invoicing will sweep the globe because it works – at least for tax administrations. With the VAT gap opening to more than half a trillion dollars worldwide, governments around the world are likely to follow the Latin American model of tax authorities inserting themselves into transactions. A new report from Bruno Koch at industry […]

We all know that invoicing processes are increasingly tangled up in real-time and other complex tax requirements around the world. However, when you ask companies if they are in control of the storage of their accounts payable and accounts receivable invoices, you often get somewhat surprised—if not vaguely insulted—reactions. Really, what kind of company doesn’t […]

Today, we announced Sovos will acquire Istanbul-based Foriba, bringing another global pioneer of e-invoicing compliance into the Sovos solution. The Foriba acquisition marks a milestone for Sovos and for our customers around the world, who face a monumental shift in digital taxation. As tax administrations accelerate adoption of continuous compliance, businesses are dealing with the […]

Freedom of services insurers are faced with a number of different obligations when entering new territories and writing insurance business within the European Union.  One that may initially be overlooked relates to which policy details are required to be recorded and then reported to the tax authorities.   It is essential that all insurance premium […]

Based on the Billentis report of 2019 (The E-invoicing Journey 2019-2025), automated e-invoicing will generally result in cost savings of 60-80% compared to conventional paper format invoices. In this age of digital transformation, optimizing invoice flows is top of corporate agendas for most companies to improve efficiencies and reduce operating costs. And many companies want […]

Many insurance premium taxes (IPT) and levies exist throughout Europe and, due to the lack of tax harmonisation, there are no general rules governing how the tax is calculated.  There are a number of different ways to calculate these taxes that are used across the EU including percentage rate, fixed amounts, sliding scales and other […]

Split payments is one of the methods that European countries with a considerable VAT gap use to tackle it.  Across the EU, the VAT gap in the EU in 2016 was reported to be €147.1bn. Poland introduced voluntary VAT split payments in July 2018. Since then around 25% of taxpayers have adopted this payment method.  […]

Marketplace Facilitators and Payment Processors Find Themselves in the Global Tax Compliance Crosshairs – Part III The spread of the digital economy presents massive growth opportunity, but it also creates challenges for global taxation. As the VAT landscape responds to technological change, compliance becomes increasingly burdensome and costly, and the need for a complete solution […]

Premium taxes shouldn’t be overlooked as pressure mounts for insurers to protect profit margins. The UK insurance market in recent years has achieved on average a combined ratio of 95%, meaning that for every £100 of premium income written, the insurer makes an underwriting profit of £5. If you then consider that the standard rate […]

With more companies focusing on global integration, cross-border supply chains and expanding ecommerce, governments across the globe are introducing new ways to enforce tax rules and close their tax gaps. The evolving global regulatory environment produces unique tax determination and reporting challenges in the United States and additional VAT and e-invoicing compliance challenges around the […]

Some insurance premium tax regimes operate a kind of prepayment mechanism, whereby insurers are required to pay an amount to the tax authorities in anticipation of future tax liabilities.  This credit is then drawn down on or adjusted as and when actual tax liabilities crystallise.  Prepayment should not, therefore, represent an additional cost to insurance […]

Pawel Smolarkiewicz, chief product office at Sovos, will speak on the digital transformation of tax and its effect on SAP S/4HANA at next week’s SAPPHIRE conference in Orlando.   As countries make continuous tax compliance the new normal, businesses are finding that they have to respond by putting tax compliance functionality at the core of […]