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

Encompassing everything from international scandals to seismic political events, it’s a privilege to cover the intriguing world of tax
In his newly created role, current SSA commissioner Bisignano will oversee all day-to-day IRS operations; in other news, Ryan has made its second acquisition in two weeks
In the age of borderless commerce, money flows faster than regulation. While digital platforms cross oceans in milliseconds, tax authorities often lag. Indonesia has decided it can wait no longer
The tariffs are disrupting global supply chains and creating a lot of uncertainty, tax expert Miguel Medeiros told ITR’s European Transfer Pricing Forum
Corporate counsel should combine deep technical knowledge with strategic dynamism, says Agarwal, winner of ITR’s EMEA In-house Indirect Tax Leader of the Year award
Luxembourg’s reform agenda continues at pace in 2025, with targeted measures for start-ups and alternative investment funds
Veteran Elizabeth Arrendale will lead the new advisory practice, which will support clients with M&A tax structuring, post-deal integration, and more
MAP cases keep increasing, and cases closed aren’t keeping pace with the number started, the OECD’s Sriram Govind also told an ITR summit
Nobody likes paperwork or paying money, but the assertion that legal accreditation doesn’t offer value to firms and clients alike is false
Ryan hopes the buyout will help it expand into Asia and the Middle East; in other news, three German finance ministers have called for a suspension of pillar two
Gift this article