{"id":6347,"date":"2026-07-20T15:58:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T05:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insight.thomsonreuters.com.au\/business\/?p=6347"},"modified":"2026-07-21T14:24:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T04:24:28","slug":"the-tax-return-isnt-the-deadline-anymore-the-transaction-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insight.thomsonreuters.com.au\/business\/posts\/the-tax-return-isnt-the-deadline-anymore-the-transaction-is","title":{"rendered":"The tax return isn’t the deadline anymore. The transaction is."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For years, indirect tax compliance ran on a simple rhythm. Close the period. Gather the data. Reconcile. Adjust. File. The return was the finish line, and everything worked backward from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That rhythm is breaking down \u2013 fast \u2013 across Australia, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. I’d been hearing it from customers for a while, and I heard it again, more sharply, when I sat down with two colleagues to record a webinar on the future of indirect tax compliance.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The biggest shift is that indirect tax is moving closer and closer to real-time compliance,” said Vincent Lam, Indirect Tax Specialist at Thomson Reuters. Singapore’s InvoiceNow, the UAE’s e-invoicing mandate, India’s centralised clearance model \u2013 each works differently, but they share one effect. Tax authorities are also now seeing transactional data and reviewing it with AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The post period operating model is now under pressure,” Vincent explains, “because governments are shifting towards real-time reporting, and that changes the frequency and the exposure of reporting.” It’s not just that returns need to be right. Every transaction behind them does too. I’m old enough to remember when a filed tax return could sit for years before anyone looked at it twice \u2013 and sometimes they never did. That world is gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n