BU Research Blog

Join us for the Accounting, Finance and Economics (AFE) seminar, taking place on Thursday 31st October at 2pm.

The AFE seminar for this semester will be delivered by BU’s Dr Siamand Hesami on the topic of Streamlining finance for SMEs: the solution of automated prefilled VAT returns. 

Digital transformation in tax administrations has gained global momentum as governments seek to enhance efficiency and service delivery. The seminar will examine the financial and economic impacts of a key digital innovation: prefilling value-added tax (VAT) returns.

Using Chile as a case study, the analysis evaluates the net benefits and costs from both government and taxpayer perspectives. The results demonstrate that prefilling VAT returns can significantly reduce taxpayer compliance costs, presenting a strong case for its adoption.

For Chile, this initiative’s economic net present value is estimated at US$5.66 billion, with US$1.729 billion in benefits to the private sector and US$3.391 billion in positive budgetary impact for the government. Sensitivity analyses confirm the robustness of these findings, except in scenarios where changes in taxpayer compliance significantly affect government revenues.

This research highlights prefilling VAT returns as an effective strategy to reduce compliance costs, close the tax gap, and minimise the risk of audits and tax evasion, offering valuable insights for broader applications in tax administration.

The seminar takes place in F108 (Fusion Building) from 2pm.