What is eTaxAudit International?
​Many tax authorities require companies to submit accounting data and supporting details formatted as an XML file. While there is commonality of data, each government can impose their own formatting and file layout requirements. These governmental requirements are conveyed to the taxpayer in XML Schema Definition (XSD) files. ​While defining their standards, governments generally follow the Standard Audit Files for Tax (SAF-T) guidelines per the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 

​Both the XSD and XML files are complex and hierarchical in nature, interpreting them can be difficult.  eTaxAudit facilitates the process by storing the XSD in a database friendly format and allowing for configuration, versus custom programming, to format business transaction and master data according to the government defined requirements. 

Regardless of country or report, eTaxAudit can generate XML files from SAP data or imported external data!

How Does it Work?
eTaxAudit is a custom tool, developed and maintained by Enterprise Tax Solutions, Inc. The purpose of eTaxAudit is to extract tax-relevant transaction and master data from SAP, and format it in accordance with governmental tax authorities’ requirements. eTaxAudit creates XML files in compliance with ad-hoc tax audit requests as well as daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual tax submissions.

• Stage Tables are used to collect and store reportable tax data prior to the XML file creation. The Stage Tables can be reviewed for completeness and correctness by the tax analyst.
• If there are necessary "book to tax" adjustments needed, authorized users can Post Adjustments to the Stage Tables, keeping an audit trail of who, what and when. 
• Recurring adjustments can be automated.  Adjustments can consist of additions, deletions, changes, as well as the ability to unassign/reassign credit memos for VAT reclaim to the correct reporting period. 
• A complete summary of the number and type of changes, as well as the changed records can be inspected. 
• To post Manual Adjustments, the security role requires elevated permissions to ensure proper separation of duties. 
• Once Stage Table data has been collected and verified to agree with the SAP database and government requirements, an XML File is created.
• A log of both Stage Tables and XML files are maintained to keep the history of filings and to allow for amended returns to be created!
• eTaxAudit provides display and export capabilities for the XML File, as well as the XML Schema Definition, from within SAP in both tree and grid mode.

If all looks good, the XML file can be transferred to a local network and in turn, submitted to the government following standard protocols for file transfer.  Best Practice would also verify the files using eTaxEcho to make sure the files' syntax is perfect!