You know the saying: a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In your organisation, you want to ensure that the VAT chain has no weak links.
In this article, Bas de Koning takes you on a ride through the VAT processes in your organisation.
“A VAT return is based on information available in your business. There are several moments in the business process where decisions are made and where information and data is added or changed. Usually these are the following steps:
- The ERP system contains the master data with information about the products, the customer and the warehouse locations;
- The contract lays down the conditions and liabilities;
- the order contains the information on the actual price, the shipping date and the place of delivery;
- The invoice contains all this information and includes a VAT treatment based on the logic applied to all the previous steps;
- A summary of all these data is used as the basis for drawing up a report, used for the VAT return.
In all these steps there can be weak links. As VAT manager, it is therefore important to understand the process and who makes VAT-relevant decisions in the organisation. And you must always be prepared to take action if one of the links breaks.”
Source: Less Grey
