One minute with... Richard Asquith, VP global tax at Avalara.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
Unfortunately, international businesses are looking at how they can unwind the UK from their supply chains, and what the VAT implications of this will be. The winners, so far, are Belgium and the Netherlands. Also, we are advising businesses on how to cope with the myriad of new, live transaction reporting requirements – for example, SII in Spain.
What are your clients asking you about more frequently in 2017?
Brexit, Brexit or Brexit. Take your pick.
What’s the latest on the introduction of VAT in the Gulf?
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are looking serious about the 1 January 2018 launch. The details are still thin, though: the section on fines is three times longer than the section on VAT returns in the draft Saudi legislation. Most of the other six states will follow mid-2018, although Qatar is in geo-political freefall.
Generally, the new regimes seem to be a delightful blend of New Zealand-meets-Australia-meets-Canary Islands systems.
What’s the one key mistake you see corporates making time and again on indirect taxes?
Not thinking about tax data consolidation. It makes returns more manual and more expensive. It’s where the tax authorities are peering into nowadays for errors and black holes. There are now some powerful and impressive data cleansing tools available, which deliver accurate returns, but, perhaps more importantly, smart analysis on errors and cashflow losses.
Is there a recent case that has caught your eye?
The case that’s made me gasp is the 18 July advocate general’s opinion in Criminal proceedings against MAS, MB (Case C-42/17). It was an Italian referral, asking the position where a member state’s VAT fraud criminal proceedings are not as strict as the EU’s. It took me by surprise that the AG went in favour of the EU law. It an important break with the accepted rules of the past.
If you could make one change to a tax law or practice anywhere in the world, what would it be?
EU member states’ willingness to reform VAT. The failure of the EU’s ECOFIN to agree on something as simple as harmonising VAT rates on e-books down to the printed book equivalent was a shambles. It makes the EU look petty and sclerotic just when it needs to be showing a bold, reformist conviction.
What advice would you give someone starting their career in tax?
Blend in tax technology to your development. Tax is the business department to have hidden from automation the longest – but the game is up. So much of our work will go to robotics, so make sure you master it early and are able to couple it to your skill set.
Why is Germany accused of being the ‘biggest obstacle’ at ECOFIN to country by country tax reporting?
Answer 1: They want to give full backing to OECD BEPS instead. Or answer 2: They don’t want the German public to see how much tax is leaking from Germany.
Finally, you might not know this about me but…
If you are scared of flying, fly with me. I survived a Russian jet plane crash in 1994. This means I am statistically less likely to be in another. (Mathematicians may say I’m talking nonsense; but they are just ‘experts’.)
One minute with... Richard Asquith, VP global tax at Avalara.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
Unfortunately, international businesses are looking at how they can unwind the UK from their supply chains, and what the VAT implications of this will be. The winners, so far, are Belgium and the Netherlands. Also, we are advising businesses on how to cope with the myriad of new, live transaction reporting requirements – for example, SII in Spain.
What are your clients asking you about more frequently in 2017?
Brexit, Brexit or Brexit. Take your pick.
What’s the latest on the introduction of VAT in the Gulf?
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are looking serious about the 1 January 2018 launch. The details are still thin, though: the section on fines is three times longer than the section on VAT returns in the draft Saudi legislation. Most of the other six states will follow mid-2018, although Qatar is in geo-political freefall.
Generally, the new regimes seem to be a delightful blend of New Zealand-meets-Australia-meets-Canary Islands systems.
What’s the one key mistake you see corporates making time and again on indirect taxes?
Not thinking about tax data consolidation. It makes returns more manual and more expensive. It’s where the tax authorities are peering into nowadays for errors and black holes. There are now some powerful and impressive data cleansing tools available, which deliver accurate returns, but, perhaps more importantly, smart analysis on errors and cashflow losses.
Is there a recent case that has caught your eye?
The case that’s made me gasp is the 18 July advocate general’s opinion in Criminal proceedings against MAS, MB (Case C-42/17). It was an Italian referral, asking the position where a member state’s VAT fraud criminal proceedings are not as strict as the EU’s. It took me by surprise that the AG went in favour of the EU law. It an important break with the accepted rules of the past.
If you could make one change to a tax law or practice anywhere in the world, what would it be?
EU member states’ willingness to reform VAT. The failure of the EU’s ECOFIN to agree on something as simple as harmonising VAT rates on e-books down to the printed book equivalent was a shambles. It makes the EU look petty and sclerotic just when it needs to be showing a bold, reformist conviction.
What advice would you give someone starting their career in tax?
Blend in tax technology to your development. Tax is the business department to have hidden from automation the longest – but the game is up. So much of our work will go to robotics, so make sure you master it early and are able to couple it to your skill set.
Why is Germany accused of being the ‘biggest obstacle’ at ECOFIN to country by country tax reporting?
Answer 1: They want to give full backing to OECD BEPS instead. Or answer 2: They don’t want the German public to see how much tax is leaking from Germany.
Finally, you might not know this about me but…
If you are scared of flying, fly with me. I survived a Russian jet plane crash in 1994. This means I am statistically less likely to be in another. (Mathematicians may say I’m talking nonsense; but they are just ‘experts’.)
