Taxback International is transforming VAT compliance with innovation and global expertise

The Silicon Review

“Our Team is driven by a constant desire to challenge the status quo, creating an environment that fosters excitement, creativity and innovation.”

Taxback International has evolved into a global leader in VAT (value-added tax) Compliance, Reclaim, Consulting, and Payments. Leveraging innovative technology, profound industry knowledge, and strategic partnerships, it provides customers with comprehensive technology enabled VAT solutions. The company serves clients worldwide, working with almost all the Fortune 500 companies and supporting over 12,000 customers in 120 countries.

Taxback International is headquartered in Kilkenny, Ireland.

The Silicon Review reached out to Karl Nolan, CEO of Taxback International, and here’s his response.

Please tell us about the circumstances or events that led to the founding of Taxback International.

Taxback International, founded by Terry Clune over 25 years ago, began by assisting foreign exchange students to claim back on their taxes. Today, Taxback International is a world leader in VAT compliance, VAT reclaim, and VAT Consultancy.

As the business expanded, Taxback International evolved with a clear focus on delivering solutions for the corporate sector. Over the past 25+ years, the company has been dedicated to helping a diverse range of clients, including small, medium, and large enterprises, to reclaim both domestic and foreign VAT. The primary goal has been to ensure these companies optimize their VAT recovery in cross-border transactions.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Taxback International identified a need in the market for an adaptable VAT Compliance technology solution. Additionally global government policies have led to the introduction of real-time reporting requirements and digitalisation of tax processes. In the EU this is under the incoming ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) initiative, an initiative being replicated across OECD nations. These new complex, country-specific VAT rules and regulations place a huge burden on many businesses who do not have a technology infrastructure, as the requirements are fragmented across the world. Taxback International adapted its business model to include the VAT compliance aspect of the market, and the need for a seamless solution that addresses all government requirements by developing our SaaS platform ‘Comply’. This platform allows the company to provide comprehensive solutions to clients, managing the entire lifecycle of the VAT process for businesses from start to finish.

Q. As a world leader in VAT compliance, reclaim, consulting, and tax technology, what are Taxback International’s key focus areas?

We focus on helping companies, and “our mission is to simplify a complex process, enabling our customers to meet their VAT compliance obligations efficiently while adding visibility and transparency using our cutting edge technology,” says Karl.

It’s noteworthy to highlight that, according to widely available statistics (not exclusive to us), more than 80% of organizations globally, particularly in Europe, still rely on spreadsheets for their VAT reclaim processes. Within this group, about 40% spend approximately 25 days each year on VAT-related tasks, including comparing and submitting filings. The data further reveals that 60% of companies experience issues such as fines, penalties, delayed submissions, or late filings related to their VAT processes. These statistics highlight significant challenges, especially for larger entities.

To address these issues, we developed our Comply platform to make it easy for our customers to transact and fulfill their VAT obligations.

Through our platform, we enable accuracy for our customers and provide a comprehensive end-to-end audit trail — when the submission is taken from an ERP system right through to actually filing it with a tax office in multiple jurisdictions. Additionally, our platform has the capability to predict a company’s potential VAT liability on a monthly or quarterly basis based on their historical trading data using advanced analytics and machine learning. This proactive approach aims to enhance efficiency and minimize the risk of compliance-related complications for our clients.

Moreover, we can facilitate online payments for companies, making it a comprehensive service package. These services are seamlessly integrated into one single platform.

The versatility of our platform allows customers to choose how they want to utilize it. They can opt for a self-service approach, granting access to their own in-house teams to self-manage global VAT returns using the full suite of Comply services. Alternatively, they can choose a fully managed option, where they provide us with the mandate to handle the work and filings on their behalf. Their team simply uploads the VAT return data and Comply prepares, checks for errors, & guarantees on-time submissions. There’s also a hybrid option, often favored by large multinational corporations. In this scenario, they have global access to the platform, gaining a holistic view of their VAT liabilities in each jurisdiction. They might manage VAT filings themselves for key markets but rely on our 25+ years of industry expertise and relationships with tax authorities worldwide, to handle filings in markets where they may not be as familiar or comfortable.

Put simply, companies have the flexibility to adopt the platform in a manner that aligns with their specific requirements. The platform operates on a subscription basis, allowing companies to choose the subscription model that best fits their needs. Whether they prefer a self-service approach, a fully managed solution, or a hybrid model, they can tailor the use of the platform to suit their individual needs. Regardless of the chosen model, they gain the full benefits of the platform, including comprehensive visibility into their VAT processes. This adaptability ensures that businesses can optimize their VAT management in a way that suits their operational preferences and requirements.

Q. Can you introduce us to your services? What are their main features?

Certainly, there are two primary solutions that we offer. Firstly, there’s VAT Connect, which focuses on the reclaims aspect of the business. We’ve collaborated with companies worldwide for over 25 years, working to streamline and maximize their VAT recovery. This applies to domestic scenarios, specific countries, cross-border transactions, and even accounts payable orders. Our platform, VAT Connect, enables us to take customer data, employ machine learning to predict VAT recovery accurately, and seamlessly apply it through the submission process. Customers have real-time visibility into this process through our online tracker system. Additionally, the platform offers comprehensive analytics for customer use.

For the VAT compliance aspect, we offer Comply, our SaaS platform. Comply provides customers with a complete end-to-end view of their VAT liability across multiple jurisdictions. This platform is designed to assist businesses in managing their VAT compliance efficiently and effectively.

Furthermore, our platform brings about several key benefits for organizations. Firstly, it mitigates the risk of missing deadlines, providing the ability to take proactive measures. This feature enhances governance within an organization because, within the platform itself, we have built a number of different escalation routes. It enforces segregation of duties automatically, ensuring that one individual cannot handle both filing and payments for example.

Another significant benefit is the reduction of audit costs. The platform’s structure eliminates the need for auditors to sift through multiple spreadsheets annually, simplifying the audit process and audit costs through time saving. The platform offers full visibility not only into the overall process but also at each stage, recording and date-stamping every action. This not only streamlines the audit process but also provides a clear record of who performed what tasks at each stage.

From an organizational perspective, these benefits are substantial and readily accessible through a quick and efficient implementation process. Our platforms’ off-the-shelf nature ensures that organizations can swiftly leverage its benefits without prolonged implementation timelines.

Q. Can you provide us with one or two success stories, detailing specific client challenges and how Taxback International’s solutions contributed to their success?

As an example we work with a well-known multinational organization operating in over 60 countries to address their VAT challenges. Initially relying on spreadsheets for VAT filing and compliance across diverse countries, it faced issues with varying procedures, frequencies, and payment methods. The organization’s Global CFO lacked real-time visibility, leading to governance and risk concerns.

The organization engaged us to implement our platform in several key jurisdictions, witnessing immediate benefits in centralized control. Over a short period we’ve successfully migrated all their entities onto the platform, providing a comprehensive global view. This not only empowers the CFO with better governance and risk management, but also grants senior management and auditors real-time insights into VAT obligations across jurisdictions. The implementation has proven to be a significant success for the organization.

Q. Tell us about the Taxback International team. What value do they bring to the company?

The Team, spread across the globe and encompassing diverse cultures, demonstrate a shared dedication to ensuring that our actions consistently align with the best interests of our customers. Throughout our 25+ years of operation, we have accumulated extensive knowledge and expertise across various countries. This wealth of experience has been consolidated into the platforms we offer to our customers.

Our unique, and disruptive technology, has injected much needed innovation into the industry. This innovation enables our customers to liberate time and resources, allowing them to redirect valuable personnel to more value-add tasks for their businesses. The adaptability and flexibility in how customers can choose and deploy our platform, underscores our strong commitment to tailoring our solutions to meet their specific and unique needs.

Our team is driven by a constant desire to challenge the status quo, creating an environment that fosters excitement, creativity and innovation. However, the ultimate beneficiaries of this approach are our customers, who experience the fantastic outcomes of our team’s dedication to excellence and innovation.

Q. What new endeavors is Taxback International currently undertaking?

The most significant change within our industry revolves around regulatory shifts, particularly in Europe, under the initiative known as ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age). This regulatory effort has three primary objectives aimed at digitizing, harmonizing and simplifying VAT processes across Europe while removing the potential for fraud.

The EU aims to fully implement ViDA, with different countries in Europe currently at various stages of adoption. This initiative is driving the adoption of e-invoicing and e-reporting within the EU. ViDA also seeks to automate the collection and processing of VAT, transitioning away from traditional paper-based methods.

A crucial aspect of ViDA involves efforts to reduce and prevent fraud, with the EU estimating that member state governments lose approximately $93 billion in uncollected VAT each year. This initiative presents both a challenge and an opportunity. From our perspective, it is a substantial opportunity, as our platforms are ViDA ready and are well-positioned to assist customers in navigating and complying with these changes. We are actively working on tailored solutions, considering the variations in how each country is implementing ViDA, to ensure our customers have effective tools to address these evolving regulatory requirements.