Ep.55 Thomas Hoppe - TaxPunk

Thomas Hoppe is a head of indirect taxation at Schwarz Group (Lidl/Kaufland). He is a co-host of TaxPunk podcast where he talks about makers and users of tax tech tools.

In the Tax Stories podcast we discussed:

• triathlon;

• the book recommendation - Taxtopia by an anonymous Rebel Accountant;

• TaxPunk video-podcast (in German) - with people who do and use tax tech;

• TaxPunk.de - tax IT tools data base (300+ tax IT solutions listed, mostly related to VAT and other taxes, but also regarding, e.g., audit management);

• what technologies tax authorities are using;

• beer tasting and its link to characterisation of the podcast guest;

• CBAM EU regulation IT solutions;

• blockchain solutions in tax practice;

• generative AI (ChatGPT);

• WTS & PSP with a support by Schwarz Group are creating a safe environment where one may ask specific tax questions and get reliable answers without a risk of sensitive data made publicly available, hopefully available within the next months;

• Taxpeditions to Taxonia, Vatistan (where VAT is a dominant type of tax and there is no cash in order to get rid of VAT fraud), Dutyland, Exciseland and GenAIsia, where Thomas in his articles (in a German magazine REthinking Tax) travels into the future and explores what the relations to taxpayers and tax authorities might look like; for example, will tax consultants be needed, if online real time tax reporting is implemented everywhere, is TP needed then?;

• what is the most challenging part of working inhouse of a multinational company;

• what is the advice of Thomas to external tax advisors – what should they do to serve their clients better.