The e-commerce market is forecast to grow by c.8% CAGR over the next four years, fuelling the European fulfilment and third-party logistics (3PL) market to reach c.$380 billion. This growing sector is providing smaller 3PL companies, who have the agility to respond quickly to seamless selling-journeys and last-mile solutions, a competitive benefit.
Being able to create a pain-free entry into a new market is particularly important to online retailers and cross-border sellers. One area that can cause businesses particularly concern, is understanding and managing the ever-changing requirements around tax and custom charges.
For consumer product companies, finding a fulfilment company who had a recognised partner to provide help around VAT registrations and submissions, made sound business sense.
“Clients say that working with the J&J Global Fulfilment team goes beyond pan-European fulfilment coverage,” Imran Gulamhuseinwala OBE, Tax Desk CEO said. “They find being introduced to us at Tax Desk makes it seamless. They look to us for expert hands-on support in navigating the different VAT regimes, customs processes and country-specific regulatory requirements.
“As well as reducing time to market it also lowers the regulatory risk for companies, giving them the confidence to sell across multiple European jurisdictions without the need to recruit VAT specialists into the finance team.”
Value-adding services
Fulfilment and logistic companies are looking at a wide range of value-added services to create a competitive difference; such as helping customers proactively monitor tax regimes, regulatory changes and logistic taxes. Something that J&J Global Fulfilment use as a competitive advantage.
“We are looking to create an easy cross-border selling journey,” Mo Oseni, Head of Business Development at J&J Global Fulfilment said. “Our customers are looking to focus on growing their business and increasing sales; their finance teams aren’t necessarily up to date with indirect tax. That’s why we partner with Tax Desk, so that customers have access to a team of experts across 60 countries.
“For businesses selling across different countries, the compliance around VAT and sales tax regulations adds another layer of complexity. Our customers don’t have to think about how they are going to manage all the different taxes; we give them a way of having it automated. Tax Desk make it simple.”
Inventory locations, fulfilment flows, cross-border sales and stock movements can all trigger VAT registration, VAT filing obligations, distance-sales rules and import/re-export duties. All things which the team at Tax Desk can instantly advise on.
Tax Desk was founded from the acquisition of a business from KPMG, specifically to help e-commerce and cross-border companies effectively manage their VAT and sales tax. They are dedicated tax experts, whose portal is used to submit over 20,000 VAT returns each year.
Their knowledge and experience help e-commerce companies and global retailers to manage the VAT compliance to reduce risk and avoid unexpected VAT liabilities which impact the bottom line.
Choosing your partner carefully
Finding the right partner is more than just offering a service. There has to be a shared set of values around quality and customer care; so that the partner becomes a natural part of the customer eco-system.
This ethos and demonstrable experience gained over the past eight years, is one of the key reasons fulfilment and logistic companies choose Tax Desk. The team is headed up by Xiayang Liu, a Chartered Tax Advisor who was previously Director of Indirect Tax at KPMG before joining Tax Desk.
“We work closely with fulfilment and logistic providers,” Xiayang explained. “They want to make sure their customers can focus on supplying and selling – and we help them do that.”
“The company’s history is strongly linked to online platforms; so we know the challenges faced by cross-border sales in over 60 countries. That is the reason we combine a team of experts with an easy-to-use portal. It gives customers complete control and transparency around their VAT registrations, submissions and payments, and ready access to our tax experts to discuss VAT registrations, distance-selling rules and multi-country reporting.
“We are a leading compliance organisation with teams to answer questions or support on an audit or enquiry – there is always someone to talk to.
“The portal allows the CFO or financial controller to clearly track VAT registrations, integrate sales data and submit returns. Clients have full control, which they like. Plus, the automation means the finance team don’t have to manually manage the VAT and sales tax process.
“We support fulfilment companies, such as J&J Global Fulfilment, by giving their clients direct access to expert VAT guidance and fully managed compliance services.”
The result is companies can quickly understand their obligations, reduce compliance risks as they scale and make faster operational decisions as they expand internationally – all of which helps cross-border sales. It’s a win:win for everyone.
Transport & Logistics Magazine – Driving The Industry Forward
