Project ATTACC

Abstract

Rapidly increasing digitisation of society offers huge opportunities for digital transformation of tax administration. In the vision out by OECD’s Forum on Tax Administration, taxation can be embedded into the natural systems that taxpayers use, rather than being an add-on process. This would reduce administration burden on taxpayers in addition to being reliable and secure and move compliance upstream closer to taxable events. This project proposal demonstrates how this could be achieved through Generic Radio Access Network (GRAN)-IoT-enabled cross-border trading. This project seeks to reduce frictions in international trade that stem from data duplication and complex administrative processes to deliver an automated cross-border tax and customs compliance capability. This is achieved by tracking goods as they pass through the border with the use of GRAN-IoT-based localisation. GRAN-IoT sensors are attached to goods, pallets, unit load devices or containers, in a “Russian-Doll hierarchy” and announce landing to a GRAN situated at the point of entry in the destination country. The GRAN makes the system internationally compatible and viable as it can interoperate with multiple wireless technologies. Landing events notify a Logistics Tracking service which monitors supply chain flows and in turn notifies a Smart Data Service that aggregates tracking information. This information is shared with a Distributed Ledger Technology-based tax service which employs smart contracts to detect taxable events, calculate the right amount of tax and trigger tax payments to enforce compliance and make tax and trade effortless. The proposed infrastructure capability, namely AuTomated TAx Compliance for Cross-border Trading with GRAN-IoT (ATTACC) will be developed with Agile methodology and embrace iterative development and testing to deliver a working end-to-end communications infrastructure.