Companies’ main challenge today is a lack of control and visibility on their global VAT compliance obligations. For large companies with multiple VAT registrations in multiple regions and sometimes using a combination of in-house teams and outsourced providers, the lack of visibility and control at a global level causes real pain for the clients. This lack of visibility and control can often lead to missed submission deadlines and associated fines and penalties which is a constant worry for businesses. Other challenges include lack of local Tax knowledge, keeping up with changing regulations, rules, VAT rates. However, one of the biggest concerns facing businesses today is the continued adoption of digitization and real-time reporting around VAT compliance. Businesses need to be prepared and ready for this shift.
There’s also the very important security issue and having a full audit trail of historic and current filings, data, and supporting documentation in one secure location. The general approach to VAT compliance is changing fast globally, and we could see there was nothing on the market to help businesses through this transition and indeed into the future.
Comply by Taxback International solves all of the above problems and more, armed with over 20 years of experience building unique VAT compliance and VAT reclaim solutions, servicing some of the biggest companies in the world. They see the problems large businesses face every day. The combination of their extensive VAT expertise and in-house development teams put them in an ideal position to develop a game-changing platform that transforms how businesses are thinking about and managing their VAT compliance obligations.
Comply automates and simplifies VAT Compliance for global organizations. In addition, their embedded revolutionary payments technology enables tax office payments in local currencies and reconciliations within one platform. TBI Comply delivers visibility and centralized control for VAT obligations in all jurisdictions. Comply eliminates the risk associated with global VAT obligations through the fully automated end-to-end process from data validation to return preparation, review & approval to submission and payment of liabilities. Everything is automated from start to finish in one single platform.
Established in 1996 as part of The Taxback Group, Taxback International is a global corporation specializing in VAT Compliance and Recovery solutions.
Taxback International has a global footprint encompassing over 30 offices worldwide covering Europe, Australasia, the United States, and Russia and a staff of over 1200.
Taxback International was initially founded to provide VAT reclaim services to Events and Conferencing companies. However, with the supply rule changes introduced in 2010, they pivot the business in other directions. “We started to focus more on VAT reclaim for corporate businesses, specifically around business travel. However, to do this effectively we realised we would need to build out technology to automate the process to ensure we captured every single transaction,” says Catherine Quirke, CEO of Taxback International. “We started to partner with the major Expense Management providers to get access to our client’s expense transaction data and corresponding invoices. We did this by building integrations into these partner platforms to automate the transfer of the data. We were the first VAT provider to do this over 10 years ago.”
Once Taxback International had access to the data, they started to develop the world’s first automated VAT recovery solution – VAT Connect. The platform automated the review of transactional data and images through AI and Machine Learning, meaning we could recover the VAT on even the smallest of receipts. For the first time, clients also had full visibility of their overall global VAT reclaim potential and could easily monitor and see their compliance rates and forecast their VAT recovery amounts accurately.
“In addition, we introduced our Continuous Improvement Program which, through our intelligent analytics platform, identified eligible expenses that were not compliant and the reasons for incompliancy. This enabled us to work with our clients to introduce educational programmes to their employees to increase compliancy fates for future claims,” adds Catherine. “In parallel, we were also developing out a unique platform to support our VAT Compliance clients, this has now evolved into the Comply platform that we see today. Like our VAT Reclaim solution, Comply is the first of its kind on the market, developed by VAT experts for VAT experts.”
Taxback International operates in over 20 languages through its 24-hour European Central Processing Centre and offers its platforms, website, and customer support center in multiple languages. They also have a highly experienced team of VAT researchers and specialists who have extensive knowledge of EU and non-EU VAT laws and regulations. The company invests heavily in research and development, constantly delivering innovation to their clients and partners and expanding the solution to provide new services in new areas.
Given the challenges Covid-19 has inflicted on global organizations, they have adapted their organization to ensure they are flexible in meeting the changing requirements of their clients. With over 12,500 existing clients, they work with some of the largest companies in the world, including Apple, Google, IBM, P&G, and Facebook, representing them on a global scale with their VAT Compliance obligations.
Over the coming years, Taxback International will continue to solidify its positioning as a global hub of VAT consultancy while expanding regions of operation and opening more local offices. “Through continued expansion we also want to offer our clients more comprehensive global services as well as expand our local network knowledge. We will continue to attract highly qualified talent to our company to open up new avenues for our business,” says Catherine. “With the easing of lockdown restrictions, too, we expect to see an increase in business travel so there will be a renewed focus on T&E VAT Reclaim. Prior to COVID, with the development of the AI-powered Comply platform, we believe compliance is more than an obligation for our clients but a significantly valuable addition to our suite of services.” IC

Complete Control & Visibility
