10 Key Lessons for VAT Professionals

At our recent European VAT Summit, we spent 3 days addressing the strategies and operational models to achieve VAT process excellence. In this strategically focussed forum, our presenters shared their experience on how to optimize their VAT departments and deliver high quality service.

Here are 10 lessons we learned from the conference:

1. Tax  is not a stand-alone department. In order to effectively lead your department and the VAT Process, you need to be in tune with the VAT process community. Not only do you need to speak the ‘language’ of Tax, you need to speak the language of IT, Finance, Procurement and senior management. You need to be well connected to the key stakeholders in these departments and involve them in your key decisions and investments.
2. Invest in automation immediately. Many ERPs and commonly used business platforms, just aren’t fit for purpose when it comes to VAT reporting and compliance. If you know you need technology to improve you reporting, don’t wait for IT to step forward. If you can, have the confidence to do it yourself.
3. Raise your profile and the profile of your department. Everyone should know you, so that there is an obvious person to go to when change is coming. Make sure the CFOs and Tax Managers know what value you bring (or what they are paying for). Educate them on what the risks are and distribute newsletters on what you are doing for the business. It helps to represent data visually to make your case, get a budget so you can do your job better and pull VAT from being transactional to being value added
4. VAT compliance is moving into shared services. We had some great presentations on the various operational models for VAT, but there is strong business case for moving VAT into shared services, or Centers of Excellence, and companies like Unisys have saved huge amounts of money by having VAT in a shared service centre while offshoring transactional work to India.
5. E-invoicing is on the rise, and you need to be VAT compliant with e-invoicing. Christian van der Valk, Company President at Trustweaver gave an excellent presentation, which we are happy to share with you on Global VAT Compliance and why it matters so much in regard to e-invoicing. 
6. Do VAT health checks. Even if you think you are providing top-notch service, never be satisfied with your current performance. Run manual tests, go back to basics and check invoices, recovery, and expenses every now and then. It’s important to challenge everyday transactions and attitudes to identify risk.
7. Get to grips with your requirements. A VAT manager’s requirement can be so complex, it is difficult to communicate to the business. But if they don’t know what you need, you’ll never get it. Spend time documenting what it is you need from every department and what tools you need to manage the information.
8. Train others on VAT, why it's important and what they need to know. To prevent the 'garbage in - garbage out' problem, spend time with AP, Procurement and other relevant business departments on what they need to know to ensure the information going into the system is high quality. Developing checklists, handbooks and regular training can prevent problems happening further down the line.
9. There are next-generation technology providers out there. While some older iterations of tax engines and technology require you to totally reconfigure SAP or your ERP system, there are technology providers out there today that are non-invasive and see your VAT process in a true end-to-end fashion from incorporating master data to filing. If you’ve ruled out providers in the past, take a look at the offerings out there today.
10. Don’t underestimate the power of your VAT network. VAT professionals have it tough, and often have to be creative with work-arounds or overhauling processes in order to remain compliant. But chances are, someone has been there before, so don’t miss opportunities to connect with your VAT peers and industry experts to sound out your problems.