Top 10 Signs That Your SAP System Can’t Manage EU VAT Complexity
Key Takeaways
⇨ How to stop spending significant man-hours devoted to checking and validating transactional data
⇨ How to eliminate the need to develop, execute, and maintain bespoke reports either to correct errors or format VAT-return data according to each tax authority’s requirements
⇨ How to mitigate VAT compliance risk associated with errors, omissions, and disclosure discrepancies stemming from underlying SAP transactional data
More and more multinational businesses have European operations with complex cross-border flows and multiple foreign VAT registrations. However, SAP is often unable to handle the complex VAT rules and associated reporting requirements faced by such businesses.
Increasingly, we see tax and finance staff experiencing the following types of issues:
- Significant man-hours devoted to checking and validating transactional data
- The need to develop, execute, and maintain bespoke reports either to correct errors or format VAT-return data according to each tax authority’s requirements
- VAT compliance risk associated with errors, omissions, and disclosure discrepancies stemming from underlying SAP transactional data
From an IT perspective, the view may be different (but part of the same underlying root causes):
- Significant cost and resource impact to maintain and support the VAT configuration in the face of constant business and legal change
- Limited internal skills and knowledge to understand and implement correct VAT logic due to the complexity and constant change of the underlying business and legal requirements
- Loss of continuity, as developments and change requests are implemented over many years by teams who either no longer work for the company, or belong to external SAP maintenance partners
Preventing the above impacts is crucial to supporting efficient VAT compliance and low-cost maintenance in your business. One issue we find is that many organizations don’t recognize the signs early enough to take preventative measures. Based on our extensive experience reviewing our clients’ SAP systems across all industries and markets, we have identified the top 10 signs that indicate that your SAP system cannot handle your EU VAT requirements in a compliant and efficient manner.
Learn more by downloading the white paper below
