· Frank Laarhoven
Why reconciliation is becoming more valuable than reporting
Tax authorities increasingly see transaction data before the return. The real question becomes: can every number be explained back to source?
For years, VAT reporting was the focus. Today, reconciliation is becoming the real differentiator.
Why? Because authorities increasingly receive data before the return itself. By the time a return is prepared, the transaction data may already be known:
- invoices transmitted
- transactions reported
- validations performed
- discrepancies identified
The question that matters
The question becomes: can every number be explained back to source?
That is what reconciliation delivers. And that is why finance teams are paying more attention to the quality of the underlying data than to the final report itself.
Because confidence starts long before submission.
Originally published on the itax4apps LinkedIn page on 5 June 2026.