Tax Law and Digitization: How to Combine Legal Tech and Tax Tech

Tax tech companies are rapidly gaining ground as global tax advisory firms, and are set to fundamentally change and revolutionize the way tax administrations, taxpayers, and their advisers interact, ushering in a much more efficient and effective integration of tax services into the processes used by both taxpayers and tax authorities. The distinguished contributors to this book clearly explain not only how tax law can be revised to promote digitization and speed up its implementation but also how to achieve better tax compliance and administration at a lower cost.

The authors cover such aspects of this veritable paradigm shift in tax management as the following:

• how new technologies improve existing VAT/GST systems;

• uses of artificial intelligence;

• secured certification of taxpayers;

• electronic invoices;

• securing real-time reporting with cryptography;

• taxing virtual currencies;

• enhanced personal data protection;

• fewer opportunities to engage in aggressive tax practices;

• competitive advantage in attracting investment;

• work-flow assessment; and

• more opportunities for information flows and collaboration.

Because the perspective as to what is meant by tax compliance is already overlaid by technological pressure―as indicated especially by BEPS 1.0’s domestic tax law initiatives and its recommendations of newly developed options to secure full transparency of tax processes―it is clear that controls and tax risk management are on the rise and that systems will become more digitized. For these reasons, professionals in the tax advisory industry and tax authority officials will welcome this book’s sound and practical measures leading to progress and revitalization through digital transformation.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. DDr. h.c. Michael Lang is the head of the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law at WU (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, the Vienna University of Economics and Business), and Academic Director of the LLM Program in International Tax Law and of the Doctorate Program in International Business Taxation (DIBT) at that university. Prof. Dr. Robert Risse, lawyer and financial advisor, has been the head of the Tax and Trade department of Henkel AG & Co. KGaA since 2000 and is globally responsible for all topics and projects related to taxation and customs. From 1991 to 1998, Prof. Dr. Risse was responsible for corporate group management in the areas of national and international tax law in the tax department of Mannesmann AG, and from 1997 to 1999 was head of the Tax and Risk Management department of Deutsche Post AG. Prof. Dr. Risse is, among other things, on the board of the Rhein-Ruhr Discussion Group of the International Fiscal Association (IFA) (so-called IFA West), and is a member of the tax advisory examining board at the Ministry of Finance of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since August 2017, he has been Honorary Professor for Tax Compliance and Applied Tax Planning at the Institute of Accounting, Finance and Taxation at the University of Leipzig, Germany, chaired by Prof. Carmen Bachmann. Since December 2017, he has been the chairman of the board of directors for the WU Transfer Pricing Center at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law, WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business).