Indirect Tax Forum 2024: AI to have ‘very important’ compliance impact

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Indirect Tax Forum 2024: AI to have ‘very important’ compliance impact

53755072149_549e43f58e_6k.jpg
Isabella Barreto was speaking at ITR’s Indirect Tax Forum in London

AI will be influential in compliance work but shouldn’t be blindly trusted, an in-house tax expert argued at ITR’s flagship indirect tax event

AI will have a very important impact on compliance but it will likely face teething issues, an in-house tax manager predicted at an ITR conference in London.

Isabella Barreto, group tax manager at payment infrastructure provider Paddle.com, made the prediction while speaking at ITR’s Indirect Tax Forum 2024 in London.

She was a panellist on the ‘Harmonising indirect tax across Europe’ panel at the event, which took place on May 21.

Also on the panel were Taxback International chief tax and compliance officer Lisa Dowling, Rackspace International senior tax manager Elena Gonzalez and FTI Consulting indirect tax managing director Nurena Tarafder.

Tarafder asked whether new emerging technologies like AI and blockchain will address difficulties concerning compliance across the EU within the next decade.

In response, Barreto said she sees that happening but emphasised that the future of such technology is uncertain.

“Even the best ideas take forever to implement and are going to find a lot of policy challenges and GDPR issues and what not,” she added.

Barreto said she imagines AI taking over repetitive taxes in the future, and gave compliance as another example of work likely to be simplified by AI.

However, she warned against placing too much stock in AI solutions.

Barreto said: “AI hallucinates, and we should not trust it with everything.”

She added: “But it does a pretty satisfactory job identifying patterns and repeating processes.

“It’s definitely going to have a very important impact in everyone’s compliance regimes and processes.”

Also during the discussion, Barreto explained why she finds tax to be an interesting field to work in.

She said: “[In] our job…we have to constantly translate new information and keep it up to date. We have to keep tracking all of the VAT registration thresholds, all of the VAT rates.

“Like any little, small change in legislation might affect us greatly. And this is all why our profession is interesting.”

Barreto added: “At the very beginning Nurena [Tarafder] mentioned sovereignty. And whenever someone says that tax is boring, I judge them very harshly because I think that tax is a measure and show of sovereignty of each state.

“And it is a challenge to harmonise it, which is why we’re all here brainstorming.”

Other panels at the event included ‘Gaining efficiency in a postponed ViDA environment’ and ‘Managing customs challenges through Europe’.

more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

It should be easy for advisers to be transparent about costs, Brown Rudnick partner Matthew Sharp said in response to exclusive ITR in-house data
The sprawling legislation phases out Joe Biden-era green tax incentives for businesses; in other news, the UK will reportedly maintain its DST despite US pressure
New French legislation should create a more consistent legal environment for taxing gains from management packages, say Bruno Knadjian and Sylvain Piémont of Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer
The South Africa vs SC ruling may embolden the tax authority to take a more aggressive approach to TP assessments, an adviser tells ITR
Indirect tax professionals now rate compliance as a bigger obstacle than technology and automation; in other news, Italy approved a VAT cut on art sales
AI-powered tax agents are likely to be the next big development in tax technology, says Russell Gammon of Tax Systems
FTI Consulting’s EMEA head of employment tax and reward tells ITR about celebrating diversity in the profession, his love of musicals, and what makes tax cool
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and US President Donald Trump have agreed that the countries will look to conclude a deal by July 21, 2025
The firm’s lack of transparency regarding its tax leaks scandal should see the ban extended beyond June 30, senators Deborah O’Neill and Barbara Pocock tell ITR
Despite posing significant administrative hurdles, digital services taxes remain ‘the best way forward’ for emerging economies, says Neil Kelley, COO of Ascoria
Gift this article