“[…], but in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Everybody has repeated this phrase at least once in a lifetime. No matter if it belongs or not to Benjamin Franklin, taxation has ever existed as the basis of what many empires have risen and survived.
The state, as the protector of citizen warranties some services and growth. In the same way, dwellers contribute with a small share in the investment. Nowadays, problems with a specific kind of tax: VAT are common. Either because a business does not have the right systems in place or because of a particular complication, sometimes, cash flow crises can arise. So, if you fail to set aside enough funds to pay your VAT bill, you or your business will face legal issues. You will also need to be ready to deal with any tax inquiries from authorities.
Grégory Labrousse’s contribution
That is why, since 2005, Grégory Labrousse (a passionate French businessman) has been leading TAXEO. As he experimented when he created his first company being only eighteen years old, recovering VAT in the traditional way is a complicated and time-consuming process.
As long as globalization demanded taking care of expenses both inside and outside the country, paper, and scanned receipts were no longer suitable for adequately recording and calculating the different taxes originated, especially VAT.
- Labrousse launched TAXEO in the form of society, facilitating refunds for employees who are traveling. In fact, Grégory had a brilliant idea: starting a credit card that lets the company get back the refund of all VAT. The company created eRefund. Designed in cooperation with Deloitte, the heart of Taxeo innovation is to receive invoice data directly from hotels, car rental companies, event venues and other business travel merchants. Taxes then establishes e-invoices on behalf of the merchants.
VAT and IT
Imagine all your employees coming to the accounting department after a tour of two weeks visiting clients and potential customers with a bunch of papers to be classified and register according to every country legislation on VAT. All the time wasted and stress this might imply for having refunds and declarations on time.
Another completely different process is receiving data from merchants. Then processing it, combining it with information linked to the Taxeo ID number attached, and generating electronic invoices on a daily basis. These invoices, at the same time, will conform to accounting and tax rules specific to each EU country, Norway, and Switzerland. A secure, fast and transparent process.
The keyword for this is IT. With an efficient customized system, connecting with many expense management solution such as Chrome River, Concur, MobileXpense, SRXP is made simpler. Then the expense data is retrieved, analyzed and structure it to process it in real time.
Open Data’s role
Nothing of this could ever be possible without available data. Open for everyone to use it. Of course, we don mean phone numbers, personal email addresses or pictures in devices. “This data source that economists would call ‘non-rival’- as it is inexhaustible and usable by all – is thus having the key characteristic of big data: of being reusable, even for commercial purposes,” says Grégory Labrousse.