If the aim of your organization is full VAT automation of AP and AR, it is important to understand what exactly makes standard SAP not functioning optimally from an Indirect Tax perspective. Only then it is possible to validate whether company’s objectives can be achieved with upgrading standard SAP functionality and/or implementing a tax engine?

For a correct VAT determination of a cross border chain transaction the VAT relevant data of company code A and B has to be linked real time as Standard SAP itself is only processing a transaction within one specific company code. That means that additional functionality need to be added to Standard SAP to give it its Birds Eye overview.

SAP and bold-on tax engines exclusively focus on transactions within a single company; it only assesses the underlying individual transactions and fails to link the current transactions to the VAT results of previous transactions. As a consequence, companies with VAT registrations in different countries cannot automatically comply with all VAT obligations.