As chief channel officer, Jonathan leads partner strategy, programs, and sales. In his role he works across the regions, product teams, and functional areas to ensure close alignment on best practices and go-to-market execution.
Jonathan’s philosophy is centered on scalability and mutual success. Insight he gained during his 20+ years building global sales and partner organizations at leading, fast-growth technology companies including VMware, Red Hat, and Deltek.
Jonathan has extensive experience managing high-performance teams. He credits his success to providing people the freedom to execute within an entrepreneurial culture that is tied to a clear mission.
Outside of work, Jonathan enjoys spending time with family, travel, and is an avid baseball and football fan. He has a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from The University of Colorado and an MBA from The Johns Hopkins University.
As vice president of professional services, Dan is charged with establishing a strong customer centric organization built upon a well-balanced team and a shared vision of success.
Dan’s business philosophy is to bring together career-minded people who take pride in what they do. He believes that legendary basketball coach Pat Summitt sums it up best, “Responsibility equals accountability equals ownership. And a sense of ownership is the most powerful weapon a team or organization can have.”
He has spent more than 15 years building repeatable implementation processes and driving predictable results in the fintech space. A result oriented professional, Dan takes pride in taking ownership of a given assignment and finding ways to execute on his own.
Outside of the office, you are likely to find Dan spending time with his family at the ice rink where he coaches his three boys. When able to escape the rink, he and his wife enjoy trying new restaurants and New England craft breweries.
Dan holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University and Master of Business Administration from Bentley University.
Many tax authorities are increasing their focus on the insurance industry in an effort to close tax revenue gaps, with many introducing Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) and other indirect taxes for insurance. Globally, IPT is fragmented across over 200+ countries and achieving compliance can be a complex process requiring specialist knowledge.
Insurers, especially those operating across multiple territories, can find keeping up to date with the latest IPT rates, rules and regulations to ensure compliance challenging.
This guide provides a helpful snapshot of the indirect tax rules that apply to insurance premiums across Europe.
The guide provides a useful reference of indirect rules across Europe including:
Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaca, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
Insurance Premium Tax compliance
The digitization of tax is a trend that will undoubtedly continue. Organisations need to prepare for any changes to reporting as this will impact compliance obligations for the countries they operate in.
Tax authorities have increased their focus on the insurance industry to ensure IPT and parafiscal taxes are collected correctly, accurately, and on time.
Operating in multiple countries inevitably means also having to comply with many local regulations in line with IPT statutory and parafiscal filing. Compliance regimes can be simple or complex, but the difficulty is that they’re varied.
Welcome to the 13th edition of Sovos’ annual Trends report where we put a spotlight on current and near-term legal requirements across regions and VAT compliance domains.
This report provides a comprehensive look at the regulatory landscape as governments across the globe are enacting complex new policies to enforce VAT mandates. It examines the demanding and unprecedented insight now required into your economic data so that regulatory authorities enforce standards and close revenue gaps.
This year’s report examines the evolution of law and practice around the four emerging megatrends that Sovos experts identified in the 12th edition. These trends, many of which revolve around tax compliance and controls being ‘always on’, have the potential to drive change in the way organizations approach regulatory reporting and manage compliance.
Authored by a team of international tax compliance experts, we provide extensive recommendations on how companies can prepare for and thrive through these changes.
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The four mega-trends that we examine are:
Continuous Transaction Controls (CTCs) – Countries with existing CTC regimes are seeing improvements in revenue collection and economic transparency. Now, other countries in Europe, Asia and Africa are moving away from post-audit regulation to adoption of these CTC-inspired approaches. The report highlights how countries like France and Hungary have accelerated their transition to CTCs, and how many jurisdictions are combining invoice controls with CTC transport documents, thereby expanding their real-time reach from financial to physical supply chains.
A shift toward destination taxability for certain cross-border transactions – Cross-border services have historically often escaped VAT collection in the country of the consumer. Due to a large increase of cross-border trade in low-value goods and digital services over the past decade, administrations are taking significant measures to tax such supplies in the country of consumption or destination.
Aggregator liability – With the increase of tax reporting or e-invoicing obligations across different taxpayer categories, tax administrations are increasingly looking for ways to concentrate tax reporting liability in platforms that naturally aggregate large numbers of transactions already. Ecommerce marketplaces and business transaction management cloud vendors will increasingly be on the hook for sending data from companies on their networks to the government, potentially even inheriting liability for paying their taxes. The report notes how the July 2021 introduction of sweeping changes in e-commerce VAT legislation via OSS and IOSS are confirming this trend.
E-accounting and e-assessment – Combining CTCs with obligations to synchronize entire accounting ledgers makes onsite audit necessary only in cases showing major anomalies across these rich data sources. Over time, the objective is for VAT returns and other tax reports to be prefilled by the tax administration based on taxpayers’ own, strongly authenticated source system data. A brief deep-dive into the origins and potential future of SAF‑T shows how this trend is evolving to become a solid companion to CTCs globally.
CTCs have emerged as the primary concern for multinational companies looking to ensure compliance despite growing diversity in VAT enforcement approaches. Tax authorities are steadfast in their commitment to closing the VAT gap and will use all tools at their disposal to collect revenue owed. This holds especially true in the aftermath of COVID-19, when governments are expected to face unprecedented budget shortfalls.
The potential costs and risks associated with the trends highlighted in the report cannot be effectively mitigated with a reactive or opportunistic approach. The digital transformation of tax administration can – if approached as just an evolution of the legacy ‘post audit’ VAT world – significantly contract the digital transformation of businesses. This report suggests an analysis framework that companies can use to ensure ongoing VAT compliance whilst maximizing the opportunities of modern information and communication technologies for their own benefit.
In addition, Trends includes a major review of the country and regional requirement profiles. These profiles provide a snapshot of current and near-term planned legal requirements across the different VAT compliance domains.
As chief technology officer (CTO), Eric sets and oversees technology strategy for Sovos. With more than 25 years’ experience leading technology teams, he is a strong proponent for establishing a corporate vision and then providing his teams with the room to work, ensuring they have the freedom to tap into their full potential.
Eric has a wealth of experience leading teams throughout his career that focused on critical, high-volume transactions. Most recently, Eric was the CTO for Fiserv’s core payment acceptance business unit where he led a global organization supporting the world’s largest payment card processing volumes.
Eric’s leadership style was honed during the six years he spent in the Army National Guard as a combat engineer and squad leader. Here he learned the importance of professionalism, accountability and that the mission always comes first.
A self-described passionate and outgoing person, Eric enjoys hiking Kennesaw Mountain National Park and the many trails around Metro Atlanta with his family and dog. When not in his home office, you are likely to find him on his ERG rowing machine, or potentially brewing bourbon barrel porter beers or pitching yeast for wine or mead making.
As managing director for the Americas region, Alvaro leads multiple Sovos initiatives, including integrating acquired companies and technologies into our strategic solutions and product offerings. Alvaro believes that adopting a client first approach helps to better understand customer needs and focus on solving specific problems across regions.
Alvaro joined Sovos from its acquisition of Acepta, where he served as CEO. During his tenure, he guided the company to a leadership position in the issuance of electronic invoices, e-documents and digital identity in Chile. Now with Sovos, he sets the strategy to bring these services to all of the SSA region.
Creating a culture with a singular focus on solving customer problems is something Alvaro is passionate about. He views his role as bringing together a talented group of people, tapping their full potential and providing them with the tool necessary to be successful. The opportunity to build a new team inside Sovos has inspired him to begin a new journey of problem solving.
When not in the office, you’ll find Alvaro playing golf, tennis or running. He also keeps busy by teaching tennis to his three kids.
As vice president of Product Management for VAT Americas, Oscar Caicedo sets market and product direction across continuous transaction controls, reporting and tax determination. In this role, he leads groups of dedicated subject matter experts across the Americas region.
Oscar brings more than a decade of experience leading consulting and implementation teams focusing on data integration and regulatory requirements. He is an industry recognized expert in digital transformation and electronic tax solutions. Prior to Sovos, Oscar spent more than four years at Invoiceware, which was acquired by Sovos in 2016.
Oscar has managed complex implementation projects for many of the world’s most recognizable brands. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in business economics from Georgia State University.
Marketscape Report
Sovos Named a Leader in “IDC MarketScape for Worldwide SaaS and Cloud VAT Software”
Marketscape Report
Sovos Named a Leader in “IDC MarketScape for Worldwide SaaS and Cloud VAT Software”
Citing multiple customer references, IDC identified Sovos’ capability with mandated e-invoicing as a major benefit.
“Sovos combines local expertise with a global customer experience across its full suite of compliance solutions. They are a strong choice for companies of any size looking for cloud tax software and services to meet compliance and regulatory demands anywhere they do business.” – Kevin Permenter, IDC research director
This will address the tax challenges of an increasingly digital worldwide economy. As of 9 July 2021, 132 of the 139 OECD/G20 member jurisdictions have agreed to the Inclusive Framework on BEPS.
Pillar Details
Pillar 1
Pillar 1 gives a new taxing right, Amount A, to market countries to ensure companies pay tax on a portion of residual profits earned from activities in those jurisdictions, regardless of physical presence. Pillar 1 will apply to multinational enterprises (“MNEs”) with global turnover above 20 billion euros and profitability above 10%.
There will be a new nexus rule permitting allocation of Amount A to a market jurisdiction when the in-scope multinational enterprise derives at least 1 million euros in revenue from that jurisdiction. For jurisdictions with a GDP less than 40 billion euros, the nexus will instead be set at 250,000 euros.
The “special purpose nexus rule” determines if a jurisdiction qualifies for the Amount A allocation. Furthermore, countries have agreed on an allocation of 20-30% of in-scope MNE residual profits to market jurisdictions, with nexus using a revenue-based allocation key.
Revenue will be sourced to the end market jurisdictions where goods or services are consumed, with detailed source rules still to come.
More details on segmentation are still in the works, as is the final design of a marketing and distribution profits safe harbour that will cap the residual profits allowed to the market jurisdiction through Amount A.
Lastly, countries have agreed to streamline and simplify Amount B with a particular focus on the needs of low-capacity countries. The finalised details are expected to be completed by the end of 2022.
Pillar 2
Pillar 2 consists of Global anti-Base Erosion (“GloBE”) Rules that will ensure MNEs that meet the 750 million euros threshold pay a minimum tax rate of at least 15%. The GloBE Rules consist of an Income Inclusion Rule and an Undertaxed Payment Rule, the latter of which still needs to be finalised.
Pillar 2 also includes a Subject to tax rule, which is a treaty-based rule, allowing source jurisdictions to impose limited source taxation on certain related party payments subject to tax below a minimum rate. The rate will range from 7.5 to 9 percent.
When Will the Plan be Implemented?
There is currently a commitment to continue discussion, in order to finalise the design elements of the plan within the agreed framework by October 2021. Inclusive Framework members will agree and release an implementation plan.
The current timeline is that the multilateral instrument through which Amount A is implemented will be developed and opened for signature in 2022, with Amount A coming into effect in 2021. Similarly, Pillar Two should be brought into law in 2022, to be effective in 2023.
More Details to Come
Although the key components of the Two-Pillar Solution have been agreed upon, a detailed implementation plan that includes resolving remaining issues is still to come.
As many countries could be implementing these changes in the near future, it is important for businesses active in the digital economy to carefully track and understand the developments surrounding the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project.
As vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, Nina Fleming leads the development and execution of Sovos’ strategy for a more diverse and equitable workplace. Her business philosophy is rooted in the belief that inclusion is not a nice to have, but rather a business imperative that leads directly to a healthy culture, strong performance and an improved bottom line.
Throughout her career, Nina has helped companies understand that the differences between people make up the strength of an organization. She believes that when employees are free to bring their whole selves to work, the business benefits through greater productivity and innovation.
When not in the office, Nina enjoys traveling and spending time with family and friends. Always up for a great comedy, her favorite recovery mechanism is laughter.
If Nina could offer one piece of advice to any business it would be the words she carries with her every day: to whom much is given, much is required.
As vice president of product and GTM strategy EMEA & APAC, Ryan Ostilly sets product direction and go- to-market strategy across Sovos’ rapidly expanding solution portfolio, including cloud, periodic VAT reporting, and Sovos’ suite of integrated SAP solutions. Delivering on your promises today while planning for tomorrow is a core tenant of Ryan’s management philosophy.
Ryan brings more than 20 years’ experience across various leadership roles, delivering innovative tax technology and transformation solutions to multinational companies. With an outward-looking focus on the market and always prioritizing the customer, Ryan leads his team by ensuring end-to-end customer needs are accounted for and met across product design, development and roadmap prioritization.
When not designing new solutions for tax compliance, Ryan juggles his time between a busy household of five children and being an active board member for a local community organization. He starts his day at 6 am with a learning program to sharpen his mind, and no – he doesn’t own a TV.
Ryan is a qualified Chartered Accountant (SA) and holds a BCom, DipAcc from the University of KZN, Durban.
Sovos recently sponsored a benchmark report with SAP Insider to better understand how SAP customers are adapting their strategies and technology investments to evolve their finance and accounting organizations. This blog hits on some of the key points covered in the report and offers some direct responses made by survey respondents, as well as conclusions made by the report author. To get the full report, please download your complimentary copy of SAP S/4HANA Finance and Central Finance: State of the Market.
In this year’s benchmark report, research found that most companies are focused on reducing complexity and cost as a primary driver of their overall finance and accounting, including tax, strategies. With this reduction, they are working to solve their biggest pain point which continues to be a lack of visibility into financial transactions and reporting.
The survey revealed several key strategies and investments that SAPinsiders are prioritizing to evolve their finance and accounting processes and organizations. The number one driver of finance and accounting strategy in 2021 is to reduce cost and complexity. This was named by 57% of our audience as the top driver of their finance and accounting strategy. This jumped 24% from last year. To support their top drivers, a majority (56%) of the finance and accounting teams in the study plan to increase their use of automation in 2021.
Clean and harmonized data and a centralized single point of truth are the most important requirements that SAPinsiders are prioritizing. 83% of survey respondents report that clean data is important or very important, while 80% highlight the significance of the Universal Journal in centralizing critical information.
How do technology and tax intersect?
Continued complexity within core financial and accounting systems is limiting organizations’ ability to adapt rapidly to changing business conditions and provide real-time visibility into operations. That is why the number one driver of finance and accounting strategy based on this year’s survey is the pressure to cut both cost and complexity.
Survey responses and interviews with customers about their largest sources of pain consistently mention system and process complexity as one of their most significant challenges. Respondents are focused on addressing this obstacle in a variety of ways such as through investments in analytics, automation, centralization, and system consolidation.
This directly impacts how companies approach tax as rapidly changing global tax laws and mandates often have organizations playing catch up to ensure they are charging and remitting the proper amounts of tax to each country in which they operate. Failure to do this can lead to costly audits, potential fines and penalties and damage to brand reputation.
Why move to SAP S/4HANA Finance?
Simplicity, speed, and easy access to data were among the top benefits cited by survey respondents who have completed or nearly completed their move to SAP S/4HANA Finance. Several mentioned the ease with which they can go from high-level reports and drill down to the document or line-item level, making it easier to understand the numbers and perform in-depth analysis quickly. This directly aligns with the pain points that were identified in the benchmark report survey.
Why now?
What is clear from this survey and subsequent report is that complexity across all layers of finance is having a direct impact on a companies’ ability to function at the highest operational level possible and is threating to impact the bottom line.
Accounting for tax early in your migration strategies and technology upgrades is a key component to ensuring that you are prepared to handle the challenges of modern tax on an international scale. For companies that operate on a multi-national basis, having a centralized approach to tax with enhanced visibility and reporting capabilities is imperative to achieving and remaining compliant no matter how many changes to tax law are introduced every year.
Please download the full report for a more detailed explanation of these critical areas of focus.
As vice president of customer and user experience, Lisa embraces the challenge of making tax easy and intuitive for customers. In her role, she creates and executes the vision of how Sovos can transform the customer experience to reduce the organizational burden associated with managing tax compliance obligations, wherever a company does business.
During her tenure at Sovos, Lisa has led the organization-wide shift toward customer-driven innovation. This includes the establishment of the UX department, which recently won the national CODiE award for Best Compliance Solution, and is indicative of the complete, high-impact solutions Sovos is committed to delivering.
As a hands-on leader, Lisa encourages her teams to be bold and try new things. Innovation in the name of improving the customer experience is what motivates Lisa and is a mantra she encourages her teams to adopt.
When not at the office and when in need of a recharge, Lisa is most likely at one of Colorado’s amazing mountains: trail running, skiing or biking.
As general counsel, Justin Pentz leads the Sovos global legal team and is responsible for advising leaders across the business and negotiating and executing a wide variety of agreements for Sovos and its customers. His focus is on providing legal advice that is practical and tailored to the company’s strategic objectives.
With a background that includes both in-house and outside roles, Justin has a wide variety of legal experience. He has managed transactions – including M&A, joint ventures and major commercial transactions across the world – and successfully tackled contentious litigation, data privacy and security issues and complex regulatory challenges.
Justin believes in finding simple, win/win outcomes to complex business challenges that allow both Sovos and its customers to prosper. While facilitating business growth is crucial to what Justin does, his highest priority is ensuring that Sovos effectively manages risk, complies with all applicable legal requirements and always operates with the highest levels of integrity and ethical behavior.
When not solving legal problems, Justin enjoys spending time with his wife and three sons. Although based in the Atlanta area, Justin is a diehard Philadelphia sports fan and enjoys watching and playing sports of all kinds, traveling to new places and finding ways to stay active.
As vice president of support and customer success, Andrew Elvester is charged with building and leading high-performing teams that improve customer interactions and create stronger relationships. He believes the key to creating and implementing positive change is the right attitude. When teams embrace the business benefits of change and remain focused on our company mission, success will follow.
Since joining Sovos, Andrew has been instrumental in launching sales engineering and customer success functions. He has led the integration of several company acquisitions into these processes to ensure consistency across all of Sovos’ lines of business.
Andrew is a hands-on manager that likes to lead by example. He encourages his teams to keep a positive attitude, stay focused and work to simplify complex problems into solvable parts. He takes great pride in helping to foster the career growth of his teams and aid in their successes.
Outside of work Andrew enjoys running marathons, ultra-distance events and cross-country skiing. He also enjoys spending time with his wife, dogs, traveling, cooking and fermenting.
As vice president of demand generation, Jackie serves as global practice lead for Sovos’ field marketing teams. In her role, she partners with sales, brand and the product field marketing organizations to ensure alignment and best practices.
Jackie’s business philosophy is centered around the belief that marketing’s job is never done. It’s about maintaining perpetual motion and continuing to innovate every day. A firm believer in the power of information, she equates trying to market without reliable data to trying to drive with your eyes closed.
A career spent in marketing leadership roles has given her a greater appreciation for the art of the pivot. She notes that not everything is always going to go as planned on the first try, the important thing is to continue to measure and adapt to current business conditions based on the knowledge you have.
When not in the office, you might find Jackie playing tennis on one of the local courts. More likely you will find her serving in her other professional roles of sideline mom and taxi driver headed to next volleyball, lacrosse or soccer game.
As regional vice president of sales for the Tax and Regulatory Reporting (TRR) line of business, Ray believes the opportunity for growth and professional development is a core requirement for a rapidly growing sales organization. In his role, he is committed to the training and mentor programs and providing individual development agendas for every member of the Sovos sales organization.
Since joining Sovos, Ray has been involved in the integration of several different sales organizations. He promotes the vision of a unified Sovos to bring common language, processes, and predictable results to a sales team that reinvents itself every year to accommodate changes in the TRR industry, recent acquisitions, or market driven mandates.
Ray believes that through positive expectations, coaching and mentoring, sales professionals will be empowered to achieve their desired results and any self-imposed limitations will be removed.
When not in the office or working from home, you will likely find Ray working in his vegetable garden, grilling, or creating something new in the kitchen. Ray holds a BA in organizational leadership, and an MBA in global management from Bethel University in Minnesota.
As solution principal, Tim Roden works with customers to navigate the complicated and ever-changing sales and use tax landscape. Making sense of the complex is what motivates Tim and is central to his belief that to be successful, you need to eliminate distractions. The more complex something is, the more distractions it creates.
Since joining Sovos, Tim has been a fierce advocate for the cloud, helping guide several Sovos clients to realize the functional and operational benefits of migrating to this newer, more efficient technology.
Tim is a natural problems solver and prioritizes building relationships with those who can help solve complex problems. He finds great satisfaction in cultivating connections that lead to solutions.
When not focusing on tax, Tim enjoys coaching Little League baseball and flag football – typically decked out in Sovos gear.
Tim is a proud Wake Forest alum where two critical life skills were attained, the reading discipline to make dense tax code easier to understand and the ability to critique authentic barbecue cooking.