On Thursday 7 May 2026, the European Tax Adviser Federation (ETAF) hosted an online conference on the theme "Tax systems in the digital age: current and future challenges". The event attracted more than 2,200 participants across the European Union, including tax professionals, policymakers and academics.
In his opening address, ETAF President Philippe Arraou set the scene by describing the profound transformation now underway in tax administration. He explained that the traditional model, in which businesses keep records, calculate what they owe and report periodically to the tax authorities, is rapidly giving way to real-time automated data flows. Referring to VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA), adopted in March 2025, the spread of mandatory e-invoicing in Member States, and the EU’s efforts to address the VAT gap, he argued that digitalisation is reshaping the daily reality of businesses, administrations and the tax advisers who sit between them. He stressed that this shift makes the role of advisers more, not less, important, because human expertise, professional judgement and accountability cannot simply be replaced by digital platforms.
Belgium's experience: building a compliance chain fit for the digital age
Wouter Bollaert, General Advisor at the Belgian Federal Public Service Finance (Taxation and SMEs), delivered the keynote address on Belgium’s introduction of mandatory B2B e-invoicing from 1 January 2026. He explained that Belgium had chosen a decentralised, market-driven model based on the PEPPOL framework rather than a centralised government portal, in order to avoid a single point of failure and support innovation. He also explained that Belgium’s approach follows a four-corner model, with certified service providers handling the secure exchange of invoices between supplier and buyer. He emphasised that tax controls must be combined rather than relied on in isolation. “There is no silver bullet," he said, adding that "it will always be a combination of all of those tax controls that will gather the full picture."
Wouter Bollaert also underlined that tax advisers play a crucial role in implementation, particularly for SMEs. According to him, advisers helped make the Belgian rollout successful, and the high uptake reflected that support. He also noted that many businesses delayed adoption until the last moment, creating a surge in demand in the final weeks before the mandate took effect. Despite that, he pointed to the growing availability of solutions on the market and said the Belgian ecosystem had developed strongly. On the current level of adoption, he referred to an uptake of around 87%, while also saying that Belgium appeared to be approaching a natural ceiling rather than expecting universal uptake.
On interoperability, he called for closer cooperation across the EU and urged Member States to stop reinventing the wheel. He also explained that Belgium had deliberately opted not to create a free government solution that would compete with the market, because it wanted private providers to develop and maintain the technical ecosystem. He noted that Belgium already has an online point-of-sale system for B2C in restaurants, and placed e-invoicing within a wider compliance chain that also includes bookkeeping and tax returns. In his view, the role of government is to provide the framework, while the market must deliver the operational tools.
Panel discussion: proportionality, trust, and the limits of automation
The panel discussion, moderated by Elodie Lamer, Tax Journalist at Tax Notes, brought together tax administration, professional and academic perspectives on the practical, policy and legal implications of digital tax reform.
Carlos Menezes, representative of the Association of Certified Accountants of Portugal (OCC) and Professor at the University of Minho, drew on Portugal’s long experience with SAF-T and related digital tools. He described the issue as one of long-standing reform rather than a sudden shift, and said that digital measures can improve traceability, transparency and fraud detection. At the same time, he warned that digitalisation must build trust rather than create excessive intrusion. He criticised the collection of unnecessary descriptive information about personal spending, which he characterised as “taxation voyeurism”, and said that such practices are not appropriate. He also stressed the importance of interoperability and the once-only principle, warning against repeated reporting of information already available to administrations in another format. For him, the central question is not whether digitalisation should happen, but how it should be done.
Paul Gisby, Senior Director at Accountancy Europe, said that Europe can learn from countries such as Italy, where e-invoicing and real-time reporting have improved VAT compliance and helped administrations react much more quickly to carousel fraud. He added that digital reporting is not only about compliance, but can also bring faster invoices, better credit control and stronger financial discipline. At the same time, he stressed that implementation is harder for smaller businesses, especially those without dedicated accountants or compliance resources. He warned that digitalisation must be accompanied by clear communication, sufficient transition time and practical support, and noted that some countries like Italy built on existing government-backed systems, making adoption easier.
Wouter Bollaert, responding during the discussion, pushed back on the assumption that smaller businesses always struggle more than larger ones. In Belgium, he said, the opposite was often true: smaller firms without legacy systems could adopt new tools quickly, while larger companies with complex infrastructure sometimes needed months of integration work. He also addressed the question of audit selection transparency, saying that administrations should be able to explain in general terms why a taxpayer has been selected, but should not disclose detailed criteria that could help those seeking to circumvent the rules adapt. More broadly, he stressed that reforms are more likely to succeed when administrations communicate early, clearly and consistently, and explain not only the rules but also the practical benefits for businesses.
David Hadwick, Professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Antwerp and Researcher at the DigiTax Centre of Excellence, argued that while digital reporting is a net positive for compliance, the risks of algorithmic bias in audit-selection models are insufficiently understood and inadequately governed. He cited a documented case in which HMRC placed excessive weight on the presence of physical cash as a risk indicator, resulting in audits disproportionately targeting restaurants, many of which were foreign-owned. He said that "the problem is not the risk of technology" and that "the problem is the lack of risk management". He also used the car-brakes analogy to explain that risk controls should allow systems to work more safely, not simply more slowly. He called for legal frameworks that enable taxpayers to verify how their data is being processed, warning that without such safeguards, administrations risk undermining the very trust on which compliance depends.
The regulated profession: essential in a digital future
In his closing remarks, Philippe Arraou returned to the central message of the conference: digitalisation is changing the mechanics of tax administration, but it does not remove the need for professional judgement, ethics and accountability. He reaffirmed that the regulated profession remains essential in helping businesses navigate complexity and in ensuring that the system functions properly. He also announced that ETAF will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a special event in Brussels on 3 November 2026.
Notes to editors:
Our event can be watched again online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqC8Ri4Squk
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