Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VATTECH (New technologies in VAT reporting, collection and auditing: legal opportunities and challenges”)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-10-01 bis 2023-09-30
The advancement of new technologies – including big data analysis and complex algorithms – has the potential to significantly reducing VAT fraud and facilitating a proper functioning of the EU VAT system. Fraud erodes budgets of states and leads to distortions of competition. It affects honest businesses and consumers and violates the very fundaments of the EU Internal Market.
On the other hand, technology-based tools and their use by public administrations cause risks of infringement of taxpayers’ rights including the right to fair trial, the right to privacy and the right to property. The objective of VATTECH is to evaluate technology-based tools in the light of the EU legal framework and the protection of taxpayers’ rights. The ambition is to provide important, new insights into the EU VAT system and to contribute to the improvement of the tools to combat VAT fraud, administrative cooperation and exchange of information between and across the EU MS.
The main questions addressed in the framework of VATTECH are:
1. What are the technology-based tools for combating VAT fraud and what is the best practice (in the light of their purpose, the legal framework in the EU and the protection of taxpayers’ right)?
2. What are the challenges to the taxpayers’ rights and the EU law and how can they be remedied?
3. How could the EU VAT system benefit from technology-based tools and should coordination/harmonization in that field be recommended?
VATTECH has been timely, and received a lot of attention in the context of accelerated introduction in a number of Member States of tools including e-invoicing and digital reporting, as well as the proposal by the European Commission to harmonize digital reporting requirements in Europe. Results of VATTECH were not only presented at a large number of academic conferences but also have served as the basis for contribution to the VAT Expert Group during consultation of the “VAT in the Digital Age” proposal by the European Commission. Thus, VATTECH contributed to the development of the future harmonized VAT digital reporting requirements in Europe. The project provided insight as to preferred, future, legitimate and fraud proof, technology based VAT system.
VATTECH had a pivotal impact on my academic career. It allowed me to build strong international network and opened doors to future collaborations in a framework of joint research projects, teaching at numerous international tax law master and post master programmes. It also allowed me to establish closer professional relationships with business and tax administration representatives. I believe that my research in the framework of VATTECH has allowed my to become a member of the VAT Expert Group at the European Commission. It has also been a stepping stone for fulfilling requirements to become an Associate Professor in Denmark and in Sweden. Even though the project has been now concluded, the general interest in the main findings and in follow-up investigations has resulted in invitations to present at four conferences and seminars in 2024. Further publications on legal issues related to VATTECH are also envisaged.