This week in Taxtech
I’m on holiday in Cornwall this week and trying to limit the amount of time I spend on tax technology, so this issue is pre-prepared and if you’ve messaged me I’ll be in touch soon I promise!
That said, I think this week’s vendor spotlight lands on an interesting company VATIT. I enjoyed looking at them and I hope you enjoy it too.
Do message me if you’d like a copy of this - or any other - long form (c30 page) vendor report.
⭐ Vendor Spotlight: VATIT
VAT IT: The Reclaim Machine Becoming a Compliance Platform
Twenty-five years of clawing back travel VAT has funded something bigger: a real compliance and e-invoicing platform. As the next mandate waves turn compliance into infrastructure, the question is whether VAT IT’s software has caught up to its pitch — or whether this is still a services business wearing a platform’s clothes.
What VAT IT Actually Is
VAT IT runs three products: Cloud automates VAT reclaim via AI-assisted expense matching; Abacus handles VAT/GST registration, filing, and reporting across ~50 countries; eezi covers e-invoicing across 60+ countries, backed by a genuine French PDP accreditation. Add a full US sales tax managed service and you’ve got a services-led operation built for multinationals with real cross-border spend, not a self-serve tool. Privately held and founder-led (CEO Lourens van Pletzen), ~1,000–1,500+ core staff, with enough throughput that Navan alone funnelled $300m in reclaims last year. Want reclaim, compliance, and e-invoicing under one partner? This belongs on your longlist.
Where It Beats the Baseline
Against the market baseline — accurate calculation, broad coverage, e-invoicing where mandated, solid integrations, clean audit trail — VAT IT clears the bar on coverage and audit trail: 100+ tax-authority relationships and a legal team that fights rejected claims rather than writing them off. eezi’s French PDP accreditation is real, not vapour, and its Ramp/Brex/SAP Concur/Navan partnerships capture reclaim data at the point of spend — a genuine edge most peers lack. Security (ISO 27001:2022, ISO 22301, SOC 2 Type II) beats younger rivals. Below baseline: calculation-engine depth is thin and bundled, and there’s essentially no AI beyond marketing language.
Portfolio Analysis
This is a services-first-then-software story, not a rollup. No acquisitions sit in the current five-year window — the one confirmed deal, Meridian VAT Reclaim (2017), predates it — and capital flows the other way: VAT IT Ventures spins businesses out (WTax, withholding tax) rather than buying capability in. Revenue still leans on the original contingency-fee reclaim business (~45% in ‘other’), with compliance filing fastest-growing (~30%) and e-invoicing smaller but accelerating hardest given the 2026 mandate wave. Takeaway: a broad, credentialed platform stitched from three separately-logged-into products, not one codebase — ask how data moves between Cloud, Abacus, and eezi before buying the ‘one powerhouse’ pitch.
Business Model and Size-Band Fit
Business model fit:
• B2B goods: 2 – Good fit; strong for multinationals needing reclaim plus compliance, less tuned to digital-native e-commerce.
• B2C goods: 1 – Patchy fit; some retail on Abacus, not built for self-serve small-seller onboarding.
• B2B/B2C digital services: 1 – Patchy fit; a few tech logos emerging, but no embeddable calc engine.
• B2B/B2C services: 3 – Strong fit; the historical core — aviation, entertainment, consulting, T&E-heavy and jurisdictionally messy.
Size band fit:
• Small: 1 – Patchy fit; managed-service cost floor doesn’t suit low cross-border spend.
• Medium: 2 – Good fit; multi-jurisdiction breadth and bundled pricing make sense at material spend.
• Large: 3 – Strong fit; authority relationships, security, and expense-platform partnerships all compound at scale.
Customer and Employee Sentiment
Customer sentiment is the thinnest part of this story — not bad, just barely measured. No meaningful G2, Capterra, or TrustRadius footprint for a 25-year, 13,000+ client vendor is a real diligence gap.
• Trustpilot: 3.0/5, only 3 reviews — too small to trust either way.
• G2 / Capterra: not listed; ask for references and call them.
• Vendor testimonials: positive on reclaim persistence and account continuity, but vendor-selected.
• Glassdoor: 3.3/5 overall (209–211 reviews) — culture (3.6) and WLB (3.4) hold up; comp (2.4) and career progression (2.8) don’t.
• RepVue: not fully ranked, but Product-Market Fit sits at 4.6/5 — reps believe in the pitch.
Operator read: the account-management layer looks solid; the larger processing-centre workforce beneath it looks higher-turnover — ask about account-team tenure before assuming continuity.
If You’re X, Do Y
If you’re Large with genuine cross-border T&E, AP, or supply-chain VAT exposure — aviation, entertainment, service-heavy verticals — shortlist VAT IT and lean into the managed-service model. If you’re Medium B2B goods with real but not massive cross-border spend, it’s reasonable once cost makes sense, but push on how Cloud, Abacus, and eezi share data before signing. If you’re a bootstrapped digital-native seller wanting a self-serve, API-native calc engine, wrong lane — heavy, slow to onboard, priced for a different customer. If G2/Capterra scores drive your shortlist, budget time for direct reference calls instead.
For prospective employees:
• Account-management and specialist roles look like the best seats in the house — real relationship depth, long tenures, genuine complexity.
• Processing-centre and associate roles carry real ‘stepping stone’ risk: Glassdoor and Indeed flag limited progression and below-market pay.
• RepVue’s Product-Market Fit (4.6/5) suggests the sales pitch is real, even without attainment data to back it up.
• Founder-led, privately held, running its own venture studio, not a PE rollup — less M&A reorg risk than a Sovos or Avalara, less capital cushion if reclaim volumes soften.
Want the full 35 page analyst report?
A selection of of opportunities to connect in person and interact online over the next few weeks
JULY 2026
NAEA Tax Summit 2026 (Conference) | National Association of Enrolled Agents | 27–29 July 2026 | New Orleans Marriott, New Orleans, LA
NAEA’s flagship in-person event for tax practitioners, including a dedicated Practice Management Bootcamp track covering the tools, workflows, and automation strategies powering efficient firms today.
Prompt Engineering for Tax Teams: Hands-On AI Lab (Virtual Workshop) | TEI — Tax Executives Institute | 29 July 2026 | Virtual
A hands-on session for in-house tax professionals on applying prompt engineering techniques directly to tax workflows — practical AI skills rather than theory.
AUGUST 2026
FTA Technology Conference and Expo 2026 (Conference) | Federation of Tax Administrators | 2–5 August 2026 | St. Louis Union Station, St. Louis, MO
The premier gathering for state tax administrators, software vendors, and compliance teams — a key venue for indirect tax automation vendors engaging directly with government decision-makers on emerging requirements.
US International Tax Course 2026 (Course) | TEI — Tax Executives Institute | 3–7 August 2026 | Seattle, WA
TEI’s intensive week-long course for in-house tax professionals covering the full spectrum of US international tax — from Subpart F and GILTI through FDII, BEAT, and transfer pricing — with substantial CPE credit available.
*any organisers or events I’ve missed? please let me know.
A curated selection of blogs, white-papers and on demand content published by multiple organisartions across the landscape, organised into a themed learning path.
MONTH TWO · JULY 2026
E-Invoicing, CTC & the Live Mandate Landscape
Belgium is in full enforcement. France’s September 2026 deadline is six weeks away. Poland’s KSeF soft-landing period is closing. Norway has just accelerated its mandatory timeline. Brazil’s dual-VAT transition is live. Comarch, Basware, Marosa, Innovate Tax, and Sovos are the specialist lenses for this month — alongside Fonoa and Vertex for the platform and maturity dimensions.
Week 1 · 6–10 July
The Global CTC Landscape: What 80+ Live Mandates Actually Look Like
📖Continuous Transaction Controls: The Future of Compliance Sovos 12–15 min
📖Streamline the Future #6: Reporting Built for Global E-Invoicing Operations Comarch 8–10 min
📖2025 in Review: 5 Trends That Defined the Indirect Tax Industry Innovate Tax 8–10 min
Week total: 3 articles · ~28–35 min
Week 2 · 13–17 July
ViDA, Belgium & the European Mandate Wave
Basware’s recently confirmed accreditation as a certified French PDP (Plateforme de Dématérialisation Partenaire) makes it one of the most credible voices on France’s September 2026 mandate. The Comarch / Forrester webinar from January 2026 remains the most authoritative external analysis of the global e-invoicing technology landscape — covering GenAI, agentic AI, Peppol, and the 2026–2027 mandate timeline in 60 minutes.
📖 What is ViDA? VAT in the Digital Age Initiative Q&A Pagero (Thomson Reuters) 12–15 min
📖5 Things We Can Learn from Belgium’s 2026 E-Invoicing Mandate Innovate Tax 8–10 min
🎥E-Invoicing Trends and Obligations: 2026 and Beyond (feat. Forrester) Comarch / Forrester 60 min
Week total: 2 articles + 1 webinar · ~80–85 min
Week 3 · 20–24 July
Emerging Markets & Platform Architecture: Brazil, Norway & Building for Scale
Brazil’s 2026 CBS/IBS tax reform is the most structurally significant emerging market e-invoicing development of the year — Fonoa’s guide is the most accessible and detailed available for non-specialists. Marosa’s country monitoring brings a European VAT compliance partner’s practical lens on the mandates moving fastest right now (Norway’s just-announced acceleration, Spain’s reactivated B2B requirement). Vertex’s platform consolidation argument provides the architectural counterpoint.
📖Brazil 2026 Tax Reform: Key E-Invoicing Changes Fonoa 10–12 min
📖E-Invoicing in Norway and Latest European VAT Updates Marosa VAT 8–10 min
📖Leading the Charge: E-Invoicing as the Cornerstone of Future Compliance Vertex Inc. 10–12 min
Week total: 3 articles · ~28–34 min
Week 4 · 27–31 July
The Buyer’s Market: Evaluating VAT & E-Invoicing Tools Across the Vendor Spectrum
This week deliberately introduces the buyer’s perspective — how do you navigate a market that now runs from $49/month Quaderno for SaaS B2C through to Comarch, EDICOM, and Basware serving Fortune 500 multinationals? Kintsugi’s cross-border VAT guide maps the mid-market options clearly. The Sovos webinar provides the live regulatory update that anchors the month. Avalara’s AI webinar closes the loop on how automation is being embedded into compliance workflows in 2026.
📖8 Best Cross-Border VAT Compliance Software: 2026 Guide Kintsugi 12–15 min
🎥VAT Snapshot: From Poland to the UAE — Preparing for 2026 Mandates Sovos 45–60 min
🎥Embracing the Future of Tax Compliance with AI Avalara 45–60 min
Week total: 1 article + 2 webinars · ~102–135 min
Month Two total: 9 articles + 3 webinars · ~238–289 min
*any cool content I’ve missed? please let me know.
A selection of open roles across tax tech vendors and tax advisory/consulting businesses who are involved in tax technology.
Use the column headers to sort, or the search function and don’t forget to navigate all pages!
v*I do this using an AI agent and due to the volume, I don’t check every link, so please let me know if any of these don’t work or have disappeared when you follow them.
✌ Last thoughts
Thanks again for reading! If you have any feedback, suggestions, want to contribute, share gossip or would like to work together in any way, email me here or hit the button below! And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to get The Nexus each and every Friday!
