Keeping your receipts is only one part of the puzzle regarding smooth (and bountiful) VAT returns. Fortunately, we’ve got some tricks up our sleeves. Here’s how to turn receipts into magic, and by magic, we mean revenue, of course. 

Magic in the mundane

Despite the many intricacies of the VAT landscape, one core truth remains -  no receipt, no reward. Even though your company may be eligible to recover the VAT portion on business expenses, it all hinges on whether or not you comply with the country-specific invoicing and reporting requirements. This doesn’t just mean holding onto your receipts but making sure that they include all the relevant information to ensure VAT recovery. 

Needless to say, this can be a tedious and mundane task. Especially considering the fact that business expenses are spread out across multiple departments, often lacking the required visibility and transparency to kick the VAT recovery process into the next gear. So, are time-consuming, siloed, and resource-intensive processes part and parcel of the VAT recovery process? Not if we can help it.

Hack 1: Confirm eligible expenses 

Let’s face it, it’s difficult to keep receipts if you’re not even sure what classifies as a recoverable business expense or not. That’s why our first hack is to dust off that VAT encyclopedia and start studying up on what your company can rightfully reclaim. Sounds boring? Yeah, we agree! Still one of the most important first steps in minimizing your VAT liabilities is to confirm your organization's eligibility criteria and to identify which expenses are recoverable. But fortunately, you don’t have to take on the task all by yourself. With VAT experts in your corner, your business can confirm whether or not the supplier is VAT registered or the supply has VAT on it before simply filing a VAT refund claim on all business expenses.

Hack 2: Implement an expense management system

Ugh, manually chasing down expenses and playing receipt catch-up is so last (tax) season. Crank up the magic by switching to a cloud-based expense management system, proven to help streamline and maximize VAT recovery. By leveraging the power of the cloud, businesses can drill down into data-driven detail, which means they can analyze the VAT potential of even the tiniest coffee receipt - magic!

Hack 3: VAT recovery automation

Even if you’re the master of asking for receipts, that only gets you up until a certain point. Still, each individual receipt must be analyzed to determine its eligibility and compliance for VAT recovery. By leveraging a VAT recovery automation tool, you can swap the manual and mundane for pure magic, as it identifies and flags recoverable VAT on receipts based on local regulations. These tools can also distinguish between different VAT rates, ensuring accurate reclaiming of input VAT and reducing the risk of missed opportunities for recovery.

We’ve got the magic at VAT IT

In a complex world of indirect tax, simplify yours by leaning on us when VAT feels more like a burden than a blessing in disguise.

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