Blog

VAT Compliance and Reporting Watch: Six Countries Facing Dramatic Changes

Tax authorities in countries around the world are changing VAT compliance and reporting rules in an effort to minimize tax gaps, improve efficiency and accuracy, simplify auditing and ultimately achieve real-time visibility into companies’ operations. While every country is at a different stage in rolling out these initiatives and they all take slight different approaches, […]

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Chile Eliminates Human Aspects of Tax Filing with eAssessments

Chile’s move to this monthly VAT declaration proposal removes taxpayers’ obligation to submit the ledger of sales and purchases (libros). Instead, the SII is now preparing the Registry of Sales and Purchases, called an RCV, which records information related to all sales and purchases based on electronic invoices and documentation. With this information, the SII […]

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The Most Critical Detail in VAT Compliance: UUIDs

UUIDs – or unique identifying codes – are what allow tax authorities to track every single taxpayer document and verify VAT payments and credits based on the original source documents. The specific code structure varies by country. In Mexico, for example, the UUID is a 32-character code formed from the numbers 0-9 and lowercase letters […]

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The Rationale Behind the Fiscalization of Payments in Mexico

One of the reforms implemented in 2017 which has had a significant impact for Mexico’s fiscalization is the introduction of ‘proof of payment’. This reform outlines how in certain circumstances, when a buyer’s payment is executed as part of a commercial or financial transaction, the seller has an obligation to issue and deliver an electronic […]

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Point vs Scalable VAT Compliance and Reporting Solution Comparison

As businesses consider technology to support compliance, there are two primary types of solutions they can choose: point or scalable. In a recent infographic, we examined how point solutions (which are deployed locally and support a minimal number of regulations) stack up against scalable solutions (which are available globally or regionally for a variety of […]

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VAT Compliance and Reporting Technology: A “Nice to Have” or “Must Have?”

New and evolving VAT compliance and audit mandates are putting a lot of pressure on businesses, making them reevaluate how they internally manage indirect tax determination and reporting. Nearly one-third of CFOs told Grant Thornton that keeping up with the volume and complexity of compliance changes is one of their biggest challenges. Traditional compliance approaches […]

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How to Capture VAT from Offshore Sellers: New Guidance for Governments

Implications of OECD VAT Guidance for Businesses On Oct 24, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), released further guidance on how countries can implement effective VAT collection systems for cross-border trade, particularly concerning digital/electronic supplies. Business should take particular note of this development as history proves that OECD guidance, particularly in this space, […]

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Evaluate Your Tax Team for Regulatory and Business Change

Our October 24 Webinar, “Building the Tax Team of the Future to Successfully Navigate the Regulatory Storm,” is now available onDemand. During the webinar, we asked attendees a series of four detailed polling questions to help them measure their tax teams’ ability to deal with regulatory and business change. Questions were based on a Reactive-to-Proactive […]

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Building a Tax Team to Meet Future Compliance Requirements

It’s clear business evolution, technology disruption and related tax compliance laws are creating increased complexity and becoming tremendous business liabilities. In today’s regulatory environment, businesses must view tax compliance as a critical function, committing the right resources, technology and process discipline necessary to maintain compliance and respond to the associated audits so the business can […]

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Building the Tax Team of the Future to Navigate the Regulatory Storm – Webinar

There’s a growing regulatory storm on the horizon, impacting tax professionals’ roles and skills. This is causing a shift in how businesses are preparing their compliance teams to keep their businesses ahead of the curve.   Join Matt Walsh, Principal Indirect Tax and Mark Christenson, Director, of Sovos on October 24 at 2:00 PM Eastern […]

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159.5 Billion Reasons Why the Global Tax Landscape Is Changing 

The VAT Gap in the EU was estimated to be €159.5 billion in 2014, and the enormity of that gap is one of the reasons why the global tax landscape is changing so dramatically. Sovos explained this development to attendees of the FD Exchange conference, which took place in the Steigenberger Airport Hotel in Amsterdam. […]

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Tax Reform on the Horizon in Puerto Rico

The Secretary of the Treasury for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico announced they plan on encouraging the local legislature to adopt significant tax reform measures, including a number of items that will impact sales tax (locally known as IVU). The details of the proposed reforms have not been released but the Secretary has indicated that […]

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Puerto Rico Governor Signs Bill Requiring 2 Monthly Sales Tax Payments

The Governor of Puerto Rico has signed into law a bill (PC 1133) that changes the frequency of sales tax remittance. As reported earlier in this forum, the new rule requires most taxpayers to pay sales tax in the same month as it’s collected, in two monthly installments: The first payment is required on the […]

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Tax Reform on the Horizon in Puerto Rico

The Secretary of the Treasury for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico announced that they plan on encouraging the local legislature to adopt significant tax reform measures, including a number of items that will impact sales tax (locally known as IVU). The details of the proposed reforms have not been released but the Secretary has indicated […]

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A Standards-Based Approach for Global Compliance with Real-Time Tax Controls

I follow global tax compliance across continents closely and what can be seen is a clear trend of Tax Administrations (TAs) introducing increased technology-based real-time tax controls. Such controls include e-invoice clearance, e-ledgers and e-accounting, among others. Unfortunately, I’ve seen many real-life cases in different countries where the TAs issue a regulation that may make […]

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The New Strategic Role of Indirect Tax Professionals to Master Compliance

Tax compliance has evolved at a rapid pace in recent years. As governments go digital, loopholes are closing and reporting timelines are shrinking from weeks to milliseconds. The old way of doing things isn’t enough for the new world of rapid-response compliance. But these new challenges can also foster new opportunities. Businesses are taking a […]

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Can Artificial Intelligence Facilitate B2B Automation and Compliance?

Twenty years after IBM Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in a series of famous chess games, another computer program, AlphaGo by Google DeepMind, won against Lee Sedol, a top professional player in the very complex ancient game of Go. In 2011, between these two landmarks, we saw IBM’s Watson win against former champions in Jeopardy. […]

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The Mexican Value Added Tax (IVA) System: A General Overview (Part I)

Overview The main indirect tax of Mexico is the Value Added Tax (locally known as IVA), which generally applies to all imports, supplies of goods, and the provision of services by a taxable person unless specifically exempted by a particular law. The tax is imposed by the federal government of Mexico and ordinarily applies on […]

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