Progress on the RTvat proposals

RTvat are making good progess in pushing forward our proposals for changes in the VAT system, and have had some very productive meetings. We are looking at setting up offices in Brussels, but in the meantime we are using office facilities in Winchester, England.

We are in the process of getting initial cost estimates and technical specifications for the server network we would need to develop in order to create the solution for the tax authorities. While we see these as being significant, when compared with the daily loss to fraudsters of €275 million, they are easily covered very quickly.

We have had considerable assistance in developing the strategy from:

• Members of the EU Commission
• Members of the EU Parliament
• Officers of OECD and IMF
• Tax experts in the major accounting companies
• Members of the banking federations
• Officers of the credit card associations
• Officers of several tax authorities
• Members of Business Europe and the national federations which are part of it
• Tax experts from industry and academia
• Specialists in international trade and electronic transaction processing

All of these areas remain specific points of reference for us as we get into the detail of the plan. There are extra areas we need to address, notably on the political side as to how to encourage a speedy acceptance of our proposal by each of the 27 national governments. To this end, we anticipate building a press relations facility that may bring about greater recognition of the enormity of the ongoing problem.

As a non-profit group, we have no pride of ownership issues; we are solely motivated by a desire to get a resolution as fast as we can. Our lack of experience with the ‘ways things are done’ in Brussels is both a problem and, we hope, part of the solution. We take the view that we can build, with lots of help, our solution in two years, based as it is on existing technology as used by the credit card associations. That is of no value if we cannot get political acceptance in that time frame – which many have told us is impossible. (Indeed, the common estimate is that it would take ten years as a minimum.)

For more information on the RTvat solution, see our website at www.rtvat.eu or contact cwilliams@rtvat.eu.