Trade minister visits Kilkenny as Taxback International announces new global partnership

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment Neale Richmond today visited the Kilkenny headquarters of Taxback International as the company announced a strategic partnership with global tax practice WTS Global (WTS).

The collaboration enables WTS to utilise TBI’s revolutionary Comply platform to power their VAT compliance services globally. Built on 25 years of VAT expertise, Comply is a scalable, secure VAT compliance platform that manages complex, country-specific rules to ensure that businesses remain compliant in a rapidly changing business environment.

With representation in over 100 countries, WTS has already grown to a leadership position as a tax practice offering the full range of tax services and aspires to become the preeminent non-audit tax practice worldwide. WTS effectively combines senior tax expertise from different cultures and backgrounds and offers world-class skills in advisory, in-house, regulatory and digital, coupled with an adaptable mindset. 

Founded in 1996 by entrepreneur Terry Clune, Taxback International (TBI) has been a world leader in VAT compliance, reclaim, and consultancy for over two decades. TBI services combine innovative technology, deep industry expertise, and value-added partnerships to deliver comprehensive VAT solutions for their clients. In 2019, TBI built Comply – a revolutionary, end-to-end VAT compliance technology that solves the difficulties of VAT in a Digital Age (VIDA). 

WTS needed a scalable, secure platform adjustable to shifting digital tax requirements and tailored to client complexities and made the decision to partner with TBI. Utilising Comply enables WTS to offer a cutting-edge, fully supported and configurable compliance platform immediately without losing focus on their core business by spending time and resources building a solution in-house. Comply will help WTS to optimise their clients’ compliance experience with increased governance and visibility, with potential for immediate revenue and growth opportunities.   

“Congratulations to Taxback International and WTS on this partnership, which is a perfect alignment of expertise and innovation between two global, market-leading companies and comes at a time of significant digital transformation within the industry and across the Eurozone, which offers huge potential for future success for both companies. It is also validation of the strong reputation built by Irish Financial Services and Fintech companies in the Eurozone as trusted, flexible and innovative partners for European businesses," said Minister of State Richmond.

Jürgen Scholz, board member at WTS and global head of WTS Indirect Tax practice, said WTS  has a very strong background in delivering excellent VAT advisory and compliance services for clients.

"Our VAT practice has been recognized 'European Indirect Tax Firm of the Year' in three of the last five years by the well renowned journal International Tax Review. We are delighted that with our strategic partnership with Taxback International we are now able to provide a digital platform to power our VAT compliance service globally. We will also promote the platform Comply to our global partnership network as we are convinced that the solution offers state of the art technology to face the upcoming challenges for VAT in the digital age.”

Joe Healy, Chief Commercial Officer at Taxback International, said that like Taxback International, WTS strives to automate VAT Compliance processes for businesses as global tax offices continue to digitalise.

"We are proud that WTS has chosen Comply to automate its VAT compliance processes. Our partnership will enable Taxback International and WTS to be at the forefront of VAT compliance automation for years to come," he said.

Karl Nolan, CEO at Taxback International said: “In an era of massive global tax digitalisation, companies need a VAT management technology that can adapt with changing regulations. Comply’s tax technology solves immediate and complex issues that businesses must tackle and this is a fantastic endorsement from WTS. More generally, it is a great endorsement for Irish FinTech and an example of the talent and vision within the thriving industry in Ireland.”