4 Nations That Show VAT\GST Automation is Inevitable

October 23, 2019

There’s no denying that processing VAT\GST receipts and invoices for a VAT\GST refund is a tiresome task. When humans do the job, it takes up a disproportionate amount of work time and causes frustration and exasperation – especially when they’re working with a myriad of small payments and confusing foreign VAT\GST receipts.

As much as you wish you could skip the awkward task of VAT\GST reclaim, you know that all the little amounts add up to significant revenue for your company. You don’t want to be one of the businesses who together leave as much as £15.3 billion of refundable VAT\GST unreclaimed.

That’s why the news that VAT\GST automation is here is the best possible news you could hear. Automated VAT\GST reclaim for business is a faster and more efficient way of handling your VAT\GST refunds. VAT\GST automation bots make far fewer mistakes than tired humans, don’t skip receipts for small amounts that don’t seem worth the time it takes to process them, and best of all, they free up your employees’ work hours for more valuable and creative work.

The international move to automated VAT\GST payment and reclaim

VAT\GST automation has been in the pipeline for some time, but now it’s not just forward-thinking businesses which are switching over to automated VAT\GST reclaim solutions. A number of countries are also pushing companies towards VAT\GST automation, in order to reduce VAT\GST fraud, improve the VAT\GST audit trail, and streamline the entire VAT\GST reclaim process.

The first step to VAT\GST automation is ensuring that all businesses, as well as the entire governmental VAT\GST processing system, are fully electronic and digitalized, so that VAT\GST automation software can access and read all the necessary information.

The United Kingdom

In the UK, the HMRC introduced new regulations that require businesses to file their VAT\GST returns digitally. All businesses with a revenue of over £85,000 had to sign up to the ‘Making Tax Digital’ VAT\GST filing system by August 7th, 2019, in order to submit their VAT\GST reclaim this year. 90% made the switch.

Digital VAT\GST software is seen as the first step towards an entirely automated VAT\GST system. The HMRC has made it clear that it is just the start of a series of changes to future-proof the department. It is much easier for business to integrate digital VAT\GST software into an automated VAT\GST reclaim for business solution; in fact, good VAT\GST automation systems like WAY2VAT connect with the MTD software in order to streamline the entire VAT\GST reclaim process for you.

Greece

Greece is planning to introduce digital filing requirements for VAT\GST, as well as for other corporate taxes. They are rolling out a pilot program in Q4 2019, and plan to extend that nationally in 2020.

According to the Greek scheme, businesses will have to use the new myDATA electronic tax-paying platform to automatically submit their VAT\GST and other corporate tax reports every month or quarter. All invoices, bookkeeping, and corporate ledgers must be digitalized in order to comply. The Greek tax office hopes that this will make it easier to match and validate VAT\GST transactions, so that they can reduce the amount of VAT\GST fraud.

Russia

The Russian tax service has moved to a real-time digital, automated VAT\GST reporting system in order to seriously crack down on VAT\GST fraud and streamline the flow of VAT\GST reclaim and VAT\GST payments. Instead of submitting monthly or quarterly VAT\GST refund requests, your company’s VAT\GST transactions will be automated to go straight to the central tax office within 90 seconds.

Italy

As part of a whole raft of tax legislation, Italy made it mandatory for businesses to use digital invoicing for domestic transactions. This includes VAT\GST invoices and VAT\GST refund calculations.

With multiple countries embracing a digital, automated VAT\GST process, it’s clear that automated VAT\GST reclaim for business is already here. For all the details about using an automated VAT\GST reclaim process for business expenses in the EU and other countries around the world, download our eBook.