Electronic invoicing and tax collection

Key points

• Companies continue to use cheques to pay invoices rather than pay electronically.
• Governments are looking to use digital technologies to help reduce tax gaps.
• Italy’s and Chile’s experience of e-invoicing.
• Not all EU countries are ready for significant reforms to invoicing

There is a silent revolution afoot. Governments across Europe are acting decisively to address vast VAT gaps and implement digital reform – the UK’s Making Tax Digital programme and Italy’s recent move to mandate business-to-business (B2B) e-invoicing to name but two.

This sounds like good news and suitable for business transactions in a modern world but the reality is that there is no uniform approach and companies trading internationally will find it increasingly stressful to ensure they comply with the different legislations and reporting requirements.

Considering the scale and scope of digitisation applied to front-end processes it is surprising that many businesses’ payment processes are still lagging behind ...