26 February 2021 – In this episode of summitto’s VAT Talks, Paul Gisby discusses the benefits of digitalisation. He argues that although such a transition might come with short term cost, in the long term “paper based systems are obsolete, inefficient and not robust for the circumstances that we have experienced in the last year”. It therefore comes with significant benefits in the long term.

The implementation of a real-time reporting system is an excellent way to digitalise VAT, which is one of the reasons Paul believes that “real-time reporting is a gamechanger”. Digitalisation does mean however that the role of accountants will change. Paul argues that this does not need to be a problem as it would allow accountants to focus more on advising, in which they can “actively help businesses grow and survive”.

Lastly, the discussion moves onto explaining why people should get more excited about VAT – digging into the relation between VAT rates and goat fur. To quote Paul: “what is there not to love about a tax where you can deal with such critically important questions as goat fur!”

The full interview is available in Summitto – VAT Talks where it was originally published.