Travelperk targets $20 billion of annual savings on business travel with VAT reclaim solution

Travelperk targets $20 billion of annual savings on business travel with VAT reclaim solution

Many firms find recovering 20% on flights, hotels and car rental too complex and time consuming

TravelPerk has lunched new technology that assists organisations to reclaim VAT in their business trips.

The travel management platform says its VAT solution offers firms to realise 20% tax savings at a time when all businesses are looking at cost saving as a priority.

The services allows users to reclaim their VAT on flights, trains, hotels and car rental.

TravelPerk estimates that every year $20 billion of reclaimable VAT is lost making it one of the largest hidden costs for businesses.

It added that many firms do not reclaim their VAT because the process is painful and complex for finance teams.

VAT rules also vary between countries so businesses struggle to understand what they can and cannot claim back for.

Avi Meir, chief executive and co-founder of TravelPerk, said: “Businesses of all kinds are feeling the strain right now and are trying to find ways to save money.

“Lots are unaware of the savings they can achieve thanks to VAT.

“At TravelPerk, we’ve completely simplified the VAT recovery process for our customers so that now they can reclaim their VAT back on business travel.

“It’s a big step in our mission to make business travel as painless as possible and also to put  money back in businesses’ pockets that would otherwise be lost.”

The VAT Solution comes in three parts:

  • TravelPerk can provide customers with the necessary VAT invoices for hotel stays, car rental, flights and train bookings. TravelPerk will either issue the VAT invoice on behalf of the supplier, or where this is not feasible, collect the VAT invoices from the underlying travel supplier and provide them to the customer;
  • Secondly, TravelPerk has increased its inventory on which VAT is reclaimable across all verticals and in European countries;
  • Finally, the VAT Solution includes a VAT calculator which TravelPerk customers  can use to find out how much they can save by booking their travel through the TravelPerk platform.

The TravelPerk VAT solution will be included in Premium and Pro plans for all existing TravelPerk customers and is available from today.

The firm announced it has also invested in hiring specialised VAT talent including Robbie Falkenthal, director of tax, who was formerly of KPMG.

He said:  “Having specialised in ikndirect taxes for over nine years, I am confident that we have built a uniquely compelling solution here, for the first time blending leading edge advisory and technical solutions to offer companies something that the market has not seen before.”