Europe, Middle East & Africa regional profile: Deloitte

In a global digital world characterized by fast moving markets with changing business models and the increasing prevalence of Value Added Tax (VAT) and Goods and Services Tax (GST), keeping pace can be a challenge. Combine this with indirect tax becoming many governments' preferred method of revenue raising and increasingly complicated regulations focused on combatting fraud, it's more critical than ever to manage indirect tax.

Deloitte's network of indirect tax experts, including VAT, GST and global trade advisory (encapsulating customs duties and export controls) personnel, is well informed and understands the nuances of regulations, the importance of deep industry knowledge and the growing importance and role of technology experience.

Deloitte EMEA indirect tax includes approximately 318 offices, with 90 indirect tax partners and over 1,300 indirect tax professionals. This feeds into a global indirect tax team of more than 2,700 indirect tax professionals, working alongside and together with Deloitte's other service lines, to bring broad scale tax aligned business compliance solutions. Their stated mission is to deploy the right industry focused local and regional teams quickly to suit the needs of each client.

Key differentiators include: a focus on industry specialism; a cross-border central governance model; and, a network of virtual and physical Centres of Excellence (COEs) for indirect tax compliance and global trade advisory. These are aligned with Deloitte's global technology platforms, offering the broadest scope of integrated indirect tax and global trade compliance, consulting, and automation services.

• Indirect Tax advisory including Value Added Tax (VAT) and Goods and Services Tax (GST) as well as other transaction based taxes

• Indirect Tax compliance and reporting

• Indirect Tax automation

• Global Trade Advisory and Compliance (GTA)

This has been a year of significant change in the Middle East region, with the release in early 2017 of the Treaty between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Member States setting the scene for the introduction of VAT. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ('KSA') and the United Arab Emirates ('UAE') were early adopters and implemented VAT with effect from 1 January 2018. Deloitte in the Middle East (Deloitte ME) has assisted in over 600 large-scale VAT implementations for both public and private sector clients as well as rolling out an extensive education program for many affected businesses.

Following the introduction of VAT in KSA and UAE, Deloitte ME grew from 6 VAT specialists in early 2018 to over 100, with continuing plans to grow, many of which transferred from Deloitte's global indirect tax network demonstrating the strength, agility and commitment of the global network.

Deloitte EMEA indirect tax has combined its technical expertise with the technology capabilities of Deloitte Consulting. This has resulted in tax technology and analytics capabilities.

Global VAT/GST Radar enables companies to rigorously review the quality of their VAT data and assess potential deficiencies in their VAT compliance processes through a provisioned system of predefined checks and balances. The solution automates and streamlines large data files into one central, intuitive dashboard. With this tool, businesses can identify and go on to assess VAT risks and opportunities.

Global Trade Radar uses data sourced from customs authorities to produce detailed insightful analytics across multiple jurisdictions in one dashboard. Opportunities like cost-savings and repayments and risks like compliance weaknesses are identified and insights summarized through a series of interactive reports.

Indirect Tax Smart is a compliance technology offering, designed and developed to support centralised delivery of global indirect tax compliance, enabling increased efficiency and quality in the preparation process for indirect tax returns. In addition to its many features, which can be customised, Indirect Tax Smart offers a standard reporting package, accessible through a dashboard that provides process and trend analysis information.

PxS is an automated VAT solution assisting partially exempt businesses with VAT analysis and modeling, allowing allocations, sectors and recovery methods to be easily adjusted based on the impact analysis to the overall VAT position.

Indirect tax Atlasis a tool to help anticipate and manage changes in the taxation of digital services. It is a web-based platform including an interactive map showing where digital rules apply with functionality to compare digital VAT/GST rules across jurisdictions.

Deloitte EMEA member firms have also expanded their capabilities with the development of Artificial Intelligence and cognitive technologies in the fields of Harmonized Tariff Schedule classification, court case analysis, and other business applications.

• Assistance with over 600 VAT implementation projects in the UAE and KSA.

• Standard Audit File for Tax (SAF-T) implementation for a global car manufacturing.

• Global classification outsourcing and implementation of trade compliance software for a large TMT company using Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Process Automation (RPA).

In International Tax Review's (ITR) 2017 European Regional Tax awards, Deloitte won more awards than any other firm with 24 awards in total.

As of 2017, Deloitte has more leaders listed in ITR's Indirect Tax Leaders Guide than any other firm with 166 leaders.

In International Tax Review's (ITR) 2018 European Regional Tax awards, Deloitte won theTax Compliance and Reporting Firm of the Year and the European Tax Firm of the Year.

Deloitte is a Tier 1 Tax advisor in the Gulf region since 2010 according to the International Tax Review World Tax Rankings.

• Darren Stephens, Deloitte EMEA Indirect Tax Leader

• David Raistrick, Deloitte Global Indirect Tax Leader

• Fernand Rutten, DeloitteGlobal Trade Advisory Leader

• Klaas Winters, Deloitte EMEA Global Trade Advisory COE Leader

• Rogier Vanhorick, Deloitte EMEA and Global Indirect Tax Digital Leader

• Olivier Hody, Deloitte EMEA and Global Indirect Tax Clients & Industry Leader

Phone: +44 20 7936 3000

Email: darrenstephens@deloitte.co.uk

Twitter: @Deloitte

Website: Deloitte.com/tax

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