Indirect tax services

From e-invoicing and real-time reporting to harnessing the game changing potential of innovations like blockchain, technology is both a driver and enabler of change. How can your business get out in front?

The move by tax authorities to live and transactional reporting is making it harder to keep on top of regulatory and reporting requirements in an efficient way. Companies are finding it a challenge to meet the technical and technology submission requirements in time to be ready for all the changes globally. Also, the quick submission times (daily in some cases) means organisations need to make sure they’re submitting good quality data. Reducing the manual effort to get the right information in real-time is a key priority for businesses.

We can work with you to manage these issues by supporting you with:

• Data quality—providing ongoing or one-off data analytics technology
• Process efficiencies—focusing controls on metrics that matter and using robotics to reduce effort and risk
• Compliance technology to help with a standardised, automated global process and keeping reporting requirements up to date
  • to support your inhouse compliance process
  • as an outsource service

We’re seeing an increasing range of indirect tax disputes. How can you eliminate vulnerabilities and make sure you’re ready for investigation?

The tax authorities manage client disputes that cut across all industries—from finance, through to travel and manufacturing. Our global network of indirect tax disputes specialists will be by your side to help you manage disputes or potential disputes.

Our disputes specialists can assist you to resolve matters as quickly as possible, and without recourse to the courts if it can be avoided. We can help you in a number of areas including:

• Self-investigation. Including general testing to assess you’re applying the correct indirect tax treatment, or where you suspect that there may be an issue. This can help you take action to avoid disputes, and gain maximum credit for being on the front foot with uncovering issues and acting promptly.
• Working with tax authorities. Where a dispute over indirect tax has already arisen our indirect tax disputes specialists can help you manage the issue. We’ll work with you to resolve the dispute before it escalates and use all means of liaison, meetings and discussions to bring matters to a conclusion quickly.
• Litigation. Many of our specialists are also litigators who can be there to advise and guide you should a dispute need the assistance of the court. As practising lawyers, many of our indirect tax dispute specialists are familiar with the courts both at domestic and European Union level.

The growth of e-commerce is having an impact on where and how your business can be liable for tax. How can you keep pace with the developments ahead?

The unprecedented pace and volume of change is putting businesses under heavy strain. This is heightened by the inconsistencies in the rules from country to country. For regulators around the world, indirect taxes are a key focus and so change can be expected to continue for some time.

There will soon be more than 100 countries with electronically supplied services (ESS or remote services). The next wave of change will introduce rules dealing with low-value imported goods in many countries, which will present significantly more challenges compared with e-services. A particular area of focus for regulators will be the obligations on digital platforms and marketplaces—which is both a developing and dynamic area where several countries are taking immediate unilateral action. Beyond that, regulators will also be looking at how governments can best handle the indirect tax challenges of the growing gig economy.

Our E-commerce indirect taxes team at PwC can help you navigate the complexities and change in this area. We work closely as a global network to give you the benefit of our deep technical knowledge and trusted relationships with regulators across the globe. We can also support your business with a range of technology solutions to help you:

• Be ready for new and changing regulations
• Manage new compliance obligations and global indirect taxes compliance
• Assess supply chain changes
• Data analytics and strategic planning.

Indirect tax policy is evolving fast. Our team can help you to keep pace with developments, understand the implications for your business and lobby policymakers for workable frameworks.

The interplay between an increasingly globalised economy and constantly evolving technological innovation is having a significant impact on businesses, on governments and ultimately on tax systems. At the forefront of these developments are VAT/GST, which have grown rapidly as a proportion of the overall tax take in recent decades and now exceed corporate tax revenue. The pressure to increase the business tax take is making VAT/GST more challenging for policymakers, as is the need to keep pace with digitisation and rapidly developing commercial speed, intensity and flexibility.

And there is much more to come. The pace and scope of transformation of the indirect tax system show no signs of abating anytime soon. Businesses are feeling the strain from the growing number, variety and complexity of changes in the VAT/GST world. We can help you navigate through the changes ahead. We combine our global indirect tax technical and practical expertise with deep connections to the international indirect tax policy landscape across all industry sectors, and an extensive network of contacts in business, government and academia.

There has never been a more important time for businesses to make their voices heard. And there are more opportunities than ever before to get involved to make sure that all practical issues and problems are understood by policymakers. Our team of tax policy specialists is ready to use their knowledge and relationships to:

• Support our clients, and governments, to help shape sound, growth-friendly future indirect tax policies. This includes working with international institutions to create global consensus, joining the dots between direct and indirect tax systems, and looking at international tax policy and its impact on business models.
• Work alongside you to stay up to date with global indirect tax policy developments. And to help you become part of the conversation through the full policy cycle – from idea to implementation.
• Work with policymakers to give them a better understanding of commercial and technological developments. So that national policy initiatives fit into the international tax framework.
• Facilitate a productive dialogue between business and government, by establishing industry, regional or issue-related focus groups, and providing solutions based on global best practices.

Indirect tax (including VAT and GST) is now in 150+ countries, so early and integrated indirect tax and customs strategy planning is essential for creating value in domestic and international deals.

The varied and changeable nature of indirect tax means that the smallest flaw in documentation or process—including customs duties levied on the movement of goods cross border—can have a significant above-the-line financial impact. This means indirect tax can quickly become a material consideration for deals involving international assets or entities.

Our team of Deals experts is here to help, with a wide range of services including:

• Bespoke Deals advice
• Indirect tax due diligence reviews, which involve looking at existing and potential indirect tax issues, compliance and risks for clients looking to sell or acquire businesses
• Indirect tax structuring advice to help you operate your business in the most efficient manner
• Indirect tax funds flow modelling to simulate models of future indirect tax liabilities for companies to help make informed economic decisions
• Pre and post-deal services, including assisting with pre-acquisition structuring and implementing indirect tax efficient strategies.

Our indirect tax deals team is truly global and can help facilitate transactions across different territories around the world. Collaboration between local PwC teams and our global network means we can tailor each deal or transaction and deliver a one-packaged solution that’s specific to your business.

• Financial services 
• Supply chain advice
• Classification of product liabilities

Indirect tax is not only a tax to the Financial Services (FS) industry, but a true cost. In our philosophy; Getting in control of your indirect tax position goes hand-in-hand with managing and optimizing your cost-base. 

More than 150 countries have implemented some sort of indirect tax system. This makes it an increasing global cost to the FS industry. Three trends in particular are making this more so: narrowing the applicability of exemptions; limiting the possibilities for indirect tax recovery; and rising indirect tax rates. 

Our truly global network of experts—each with a strong focus on indirect taxes for the FS industry—are ready to help you overcome the challenges. We can make it easier for FS businesses like yours to manage indirect tax positions, and navigate policy changes, new case-law and indirect tax reporting requirements. 

Our goal and ambition is to help you locally and globally, with the right experts with combined FS tax and industry knowledge, wherever you operate.

We’ll also help you stay up to date with relevant changes, through our news alerts, webcasts, conferences and other events and updates.