Day 1

The first day of the next General Assembly will be focused in electronic documentation. A subject I have previously written about in this Blog. The series titled Electronic Documents (i) to (v), with publications 1 to 4 in March and April of 2011 and in April 2013, the last one; and the post Myths, traditions, legends and other things like that, from July 2012, that deal with prefilled tax returns that some Tax Administrations are already presenting to its taxpayers. I write this post against my better judgment because I might bore you.

Our host will cover the initial presentation. It can´t be better. In my opinion, Brazil is the country to look when the subject is electronic documentation. In Brazil tax returns where already massively being filed over the Internet before electronic filing turned popular all around the world. It was not the first one to implement electronic invoicing, but was the first to do so with invoices being sent and authorized by the
Tax Administration before they are produced. Today, with over a million businesses registered and over seven billion invoices completely cover business-to-business transactions subjected to the ICMS tax, the consumption tax that somehow resemblance VAT. But it is also the country of SPED, the system of accounting and reporting of tax information at both the national and state level. SPED allows the filing of books and records with an implementation so successful that is turning the equivalent of the monthly sales or VAT return useless, since taxes could be directly assessed from the records.

In recent days, the Receita Federal, announced over the media that a series of new features have been added to the Income Tax return for individuals, including the ability to file an already prefilled return over a mobile phone or tablet. Probably some of the attendees at the Assembly will have a nice surprise in their way to Brazil when they will not be given the traditional in-paper Customs Declaration, as it also happens in other countries.  But many more would be surprised, if they would know that in case they do need such a declaration an on-line application is available over the Internet and mobile devices. Surely, in the near future, it will be electronically filled and sent from the plane. Besides the things that are already working we could take a look at a couple pilot projects: the electronic invoice for consumers, which will facilitate an effective way for tax administrations to get relevant data, but that could target large scale substitution of current fiscal printers and cash registers; and the implementation of Brasil-ID a project for monitoring the transportation of goods with support of RFID chips that would allow on-line cross-matching with transport guides and electronic invoices on the go. Surely, Orwellian persons will be nervous with these solutions, but to comfort them a little, they could learn about the great number of opportunities for taxpayers in terms of security, inventory handling, equipment maintenance and many other things.

But Brazil will not be the only one sharing nice and successful experiences. The Dominican Republic will talk about a solution precisely based in fiscal printers and cash registers, a proof that not everything has to be done the same way, but in their implementation data is being transmitted to the Tax Administration over the mobile network.  Chile, the pioneer in terms of electronic invoicing with a model that allows  full data in the Tax Administration, will show us an innovative solution where the invoice for retail transaction would be actually the credit card transaction.

Argentina will present its experience with “My Contributions”, a system where electronic certificates for employer contributions to Social Security are used and Kenya will talk us about their experience with M-Pesa, an electronic payment system based on SMS messages over the mobile network that, in my opinion, is the electronic payment system with the highest penetration rate in the world. To finish, both that day and this post, The Netherlands will present its project for a hundred per cent digital tax and customs administration.

I am sure that it will be a good day for experience sharing regarding successful and effective solutions that not only are working but also have immense approval by taxpayers. A day to talk about breaking the status quo ant the transformation that the Internet and electronic documentation caused to the communication means between taxpayers and the administration. Something many like to call Disruption(1).

Good luck.

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