On 27-28 September 2023, IOTA successfully held its latest workshop, "Using Unstructured Data to Improve Compliance Risk Management in Tax Administrations". This digital event had over 160 registered participants from 31IOTA countries and featured speakers from various member tax administrations including Finland, Italy, Norway, and the United Kingdom, as well as presenters from the business community such as Alvara and Fonoa.
This 2-day IOTA workshop provided an opportunity for the IOTA member tax administrations to discuss the approaches they have taken to storing, managing, and analysing unstructured data, and how it has been used to identify non-compliance. Digital participants were able to look at some current good practices and consider how to improve the use of unstructured data in their own administration.
On the first day of the workshop, speakers from the business community took the virtual stage. Alex Baulf, a senior director of Avalara, spoke about the challenges and opportunities of e-reporting tax data. He discussed the main differences between local and global e-invoicing, including its models and challenges. This was followed by a presentation from Alexander Kobakhidze, the Director of Tax Technology at Fonoa. He provided insights into how different business operating models and data protection considerations can impact on the ability of businesses to respond rapidly to information requests from tax authorities. Finally, Tim Callagan, from the HMRC Security and Governance team, gave a presentation on "Logical Access to Data." He provided an overview of how HMRC manage and control access to data, both from a policy and a practical perspective.
The second day of the workshop provided an opportunity for IOTA member countries to share their views and experiences on using unstructured data. The following subjects were covered:
- Finland “Navigating Unstructured Data” presented by Tommi Inkilä;
- Italy “Use of descriptor in e-invoices” presented by Antonio Virgillito;
- Norway “Improving compliance using Chat GPT” presented by Nader Aeinehchi; and
- the United Kingdom “Use of Financial Data” presented by Joshua Bowler
The presentations on both days were supported by limited participation group discussions and a panel session on the last day. All the materials and presentations are now available online and the event recording will be made uploaded soon to the event’s webpage. This event was moderated by the IOTA International Taxation Experts Jonathan Heath & Alexandros Roukalis and the event took place live via MS Teams.
