VAT and Digital Reporting: ViDA Implications for Western Balkan Businesses and a Phased Adoption Roadmap
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18525837Keywords:
VAT, ViDA, digital reporting, e-invoicing, RTIR, platform economy, VAT fraud, compliance costs, SMEs, Western BalkansAbstract
The European Union’s VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) reforms represent a shift from periodic, ex post VAT reporting toward structured invoice data, digital reporting requirements, and strengthened cooperation mechanisms. Although ViDA is EU legislation, it has immediate and indirect implications for Western Balkan businesses integrated into EU value chains, cross-border B2B supply, and platform-mediated commerce. This paper evaluates the operational and compliance impacts of ViDA-like digital VAT reforms on regional firms and proposes a phased adoption roadmap that balances enforcement effectiveness, administrative capacity, and SME proportionality. Using a qualitative policy-to-controls framework, the study synthesises EU institutional sources, comparative evidence on Hungary’s real-time invoice reporting (RTIR) regime, and VAT gap benchmarking. Results present a ViDA-aligned end-to-end reporting and control loop suitable for regional businesses and administrations (Figure 1), a structured business impact matrix (Table 1), and a comparative mini-case contrasting RTIR with baseline periodic reporting across latency, validation strictness, and correction dynamics, with outcome-context evidence from official VAT gap estimates (Tables 2–3). The paper concludes that staged adoption—starting with standardisation, targeted pilots, and SME support—can reduce information lags and compliance gaps while minimising transition shocks.
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