Key forum discusses ways to make smooth VAT transition

A panel discussion organised by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) at the Four Seasons Bahrain Hotel discussed the VAT journey in Bahrain and its impact on businesses.

Though the VAT transition is happening at a fast pace, many companies have only trained a few staff to carry out the transition, observed VAT experts from Sage, Deloitte, Thomson Reuters, Grant Thornton, Al Tamimi and Company and BIBF at the discussion chaired by Lindsay Degouve de Nuncques, Head of ACCA Middle East.

Speaking at the session, Sage Middle East technical director Mansoor Sarwar said that businesses preparing for the further rollout of VAT in Bahrain must focus on their people and their processes. “We all know that there are so many fine details that you need to remember as a business and it’s not humanly possible to remember all those details all the time.

“A simple invoice requires 15 separate details to be compliant with new VAT procedures. It’s impractical to expect a human to check that every time. The more manual steps involved in any process, the more the risks of mistakes, if nothing else.” “In Saudi Arabia, which implemented VAT last year, more than a third of 12,500 companies inspected had failed their audits, whereas Bahrain phased implementation of VAT, beginning with the larger companies, which gave small and medium-sized businesses more time to prepare.”