VATupdate Newsletter Week 49 2021

Hello, here’s the VATupdate Newsletter again.

In some countries it is normal to take a nap after lunch, also referred to as a siesta. At least that’s what we call it in the Netherlands. A recent study show (or rather, confirms), that

“Short afternoon naps at the workplace lead to significant increases in productivity, psychological well-being and cognition. In contrast, an extra 30 minutes sleep at night shows no similar improvements.” (Source: Quarterly journal of economics).

This was researched for a specific group of workers in India, and the actual conclusion is not really what you think it might be. Because the group of people that was part of the research, was in fact not sleeping well at home during the night, and the researched therefore tried to improve the sleeping conditions at home for one group, and let another group sleep at work. The home sleepers performed a little better at work, but the work sleepers performed better. And therefore the researchers concluded that employers should let people sleep at work, because that; s good for productivity.

I’m not sure if that outcome would be the same if we would do the same research in Europe. Although it would be a great experiment. Can you imagine your boss telling you that you can sleep in the office every afternoon? Not an after-lunch dip, but an after-lunch nap? You would probably have to catch up the sleeping time in the evenings, and yes, I could imagine that it may result in you doing more work per day. Not (only) because you’re rested, but also because after the ‘normal’ working hours, you usually get less distracted by emails, phone calls and colleagues.

But I’m no psychologist, so let’s leave these types of research to the professionals. I can only say that for some people, the EU VAT Directive is a book that helps them falling asleep very quickly, while other enjoy reading the ECJ VAT case law all weekend and even telling VAT stories to friends and relatives during birthday parties and Christmas diner.

I’m sure that all you, the VATupdate Newsletter readers, are of the latter kind, right?

Enjoy this week’s overview of all our posts.

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