Norway’s government planned to officially require SAF-T reporting beginning in January 2017, but pushed the deadline back to 2018 as it finalizes details. With the 2018 deadline looming, companies need to start implementing their Norway SAF-T compliance solution now, or risk fines, penalties and business disruptions.
SAF-T mandates have already been implemented in several EU countries, with more considering the requirements. Despite some minor differences in implementation from country to country, SAF-T ensures that tax authorities have access to relevant data in an easily readable format. It is designed to improve record keeping and enable governments to conduct audits more efficiently to quickly detect fraud and errors.
As the deadline for compliance in Norway nears, evaluate these six questions to be confident that your company can adhere with Norway’s SAF-T mandates in 2018.
- What is the best way to address SAF-T requirements across all of my global operations?
SAF-T requirements can vary from country to country. As a result, multinational companies often have to invest in and maintain numerous single-country solutions, which add cost and complexity to their corporate accounting and IT management. This country-by-country approach is ineffective in today’s compliance environment. Instead of dealing with many disparate systems, look for a global solution with significant location knowledge that can address compliance across all countries in which you do business.
- How can we ensure that our data is accurate and guarantee we are providing the government with the information it requires?
Any solution you employ should be able to import data from multiple systems, as well as append and enrich data in a way that is easily audited. Your solution should also establish a rules engine to support data analysis, accuracy and reconciliation, with 24/7 regulatory analysis and dedicated IT teams to research, analyse, translate and implement VAT & B2G reporting changes into your compliance processes.
- Will our solution adapt to our current business processes?
To avoid errors, it’s critical that your solution automate data extraction no matter your data source (SAP, Oracle, MS Dynamics, etc.), and submit data and reports directly to authorities in the right format. Automating these processes eliminates the risk of data discrepancies and manipulation.
- How can we ensure we have a reliable audit trail?
Look for a compliance partner that can assemble all relevant information, documentation, workflow and history in a central, controlled location, creating a bulletproof defense trail in case of an audit. Likewise, corporate visibility and oversight is imperative to maintain a single source of truth.
- Is my data secure?
Your data should be encrypted, not only in transit to the tax authority, but also within the solution during data extraction, manipulation and submission to protect both your company and your customers.
How can I scale my compliance efforts since regulations change frequently? Regulations can change multiple times per year, ranging from minor changes in field requirements and character counts to major overhauls of technical communication protocols. These changes present businesses with nearly constant fire drills as they are forced to update their own internal systems or upgrade their ERP company-wide. To alleviate costly, time-consuming disruptions to daily operations, consider a scalable, end-to-end solution that can deliver automatic updates.
TAKE ACTION
Does your compliance solution effectively support Norway’s impending SAF-T mandate? Contact Sovos today for an assessment, and watch our webinar replay for best practices in SAT-T compliance.
