Richard Asquith (VAT Calc) on VAT & technologies

<p>Richard Asquith is CEO of VAT Calc – VAT & technology company, making the global VAT compliance as easy as at all possible. He is also a winner of <i>International Tax Review's</i> ‘Tax Innovator of the Year’ award. Richard was also a VP of Avalara, and before that was working for Big 4s in the UK, Hungary, Russia, France and the US. </p><p><strong>On literature, relations & wine</strong></p><p>But we start our chat with Moscow, English and Russian romantic classic literature, Dostoyevsky and Chekhov’s <i>The Lady with the Dog </i>story. Love towards travelling and literature turned into love of a variety of languages, cultures and VAT systems across Europe. Richard also now is fond of US literature of 50s and 60s – many might not have heard of a brilliant <i>Stoner</i> by John Williams and <i>Bullet Park</i> by John Cheever. Besides the books, now when the kids have grown up there is more time to re-discover a nice conversation with his wife as well. Richard adds that a good French wine completes a perfect picture – a chat with the loved one along with a glass of wine, and a book. </p><p><strong>E-invoicing is the thing</strong></p><p>Once we start talking about VAT Richard’s eyes sparkle. Countries are queuing up following success of Italy, Spain and Hungary who introduced e-invoicing and thus reduced the VAT gap to a significant extent. Poland, France, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, etc are lining up next to do the same. Tax people should not start falling in love with technologies, cause tax authorities are doing the same. </p><p><strong>On VAT automation</strong></p><p>Automation at VAT Calc is focused on VAT compliance by applying the VAT rates correctly, especially on the live invoices, as well as filing it through a VAT return. The other problem was that VAT compliance soft was often made by IT people with vague understanding of how VAT works, especially in so many different EU Member States. VAT Calc has managed to create a unique IT platform that does both – applies correct rates on invoices and puts t