Will the paper declaration of diesel excise duty soon be replaced by the digital declaration?

In today's digital world, the use of paper documents and administrative procedures often seems outdated. Despite this, governments, especially when requesting foreign excise duty on diesel, continue to adhere to traditional paper returns.

In today's digital world, the use of paper documents and administrative procedures often seems outdated.

Although paper declarations currently the standard are, there are several of excise refund. This includes speed, cost savings, efficiency and simplification of administrative processes for international transport operators. It would also contribute to reducing errors and delays that may occur when handling paper documents manually.

Although all administrative procedures seem to have changed from paper to digital over the last 15 years, procedures such as foreign excise duty refund remain behind. A number of reasons may exist for this:

• **Complexity of international excise rules:**The current system of international excise rules is complex, with different requirements and procedures per country. This complexity makes it more difficult to implement uniform digital systems for requesting foreign excise duty on diesel. Each country has its own specific rules and requirements and developing a standardised digital system can be a challenge.
• Technological limitations and standardisation: The implementation of a digital system for recovering foreign excise duty requires robust technological infrastructure and compatibility between different countries. Different tax authorities work with different IT systems and standards, which makes creating a uniform digital platform a challenge.
• **Fraud prevention:**Preventing fraud is an important consideration when retrieving foreign excise duty via paper returns. Paper declarations can be physical require signatures, original invoices and annexes, making it easier to verify the accuracy of the data. Efforts are underway worldwide to digitise and simplify administrative processes. In Belgium there is already the possibility of submitting a digital request for excise refund for Belgian established transport operators. The requirements for refund of Belgian diesel excise duty do not differ between a Belgian or non-Belgian transport operator. In this case, the system is already there and you might wonder why non-Belgian-based transport operators should not use it. The real reason for this is not known to the Belgian customs authorities. However, looking at the reasons mentioned above, it can only be for one reason. Like the reason why the wet signature is often still required by government documents, the paper declaration is a requirement for non-Belgian-based transport operators, an additional security to prevent fraud. Isn't fraud involved in paper returns? Well, but it takes a lot more effort for the fraud to fake the charges. Unfortunately, since diesel is a very large tax refund, governments like Belgium do not dare to take the risk of switching to fully digital declarations. With the increasingly uniform rules and procedures between European Member States and the global digitisation of many administrative processes, it is crazy to note that diesel tax returns remain behind. Is this going to change in the future? Hard to say, but looking at the facts, refund of excise duty is already digitally possible. Governments remain reluctant in this and the chances that this mindset will change over the next ten years seem far.