The first Cyprus VAT Association (CYVA) VAT Forum, was successfully held on Tuesday, 1 November 2022 at the Hilton Nicosia. Following the establishment of  CYVA in 2019 which was almost immediately caught by the pandemic, it was not possible until now to hold the first Forum. But it was definitely worth the wait!

Over 100 participants from all over Cyprus representing different work fields like audit, accounting and law as well as representatives from the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) and the International VAT Association (IVA) gathered together in order to be informed and enhance their knowledge about the importance of VAT, the difficulties in interpretation and application of specific provisions as well as future matters pertaining VAT.

Very insightful and interesting presentations were made by Prof. Dr. David Hummel, a Referendary for the German Advocate General at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg about how the ECJ works and the importance of the correct approach concerning the appeals to the court when it comes to VAT matters. Moreover, Mr Raymond Feen, Board Member of the International VAT Association (IVA), made an introduction to the International VAT Association (IVA), of which CYVA is a full member. Following Mr Feen, Demetra Constantinou, Chairwoman of CYVA and Partner with Kinanis LLC, explained in detail the VAT treatment of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and last but not least Mr Alexis Tsielepis, Vice-Chairman of CYVA and Managing Director of Chelco VAT Ltd, alongside Mr Raymond Feen gave an update on the work of the European Commission in the field of VAT.

In addition to the presentations, different panel discussions were held, during one of which the Tax for All platform, was presented and explained by the Tax Department representatives. Further, the importance of VAT to Cyprus’ economy was discussed in another panel discussion and the Forum ended with a discussion on the impact of technology and digitization on VAT.

Overall, it was a very successful and informative first CYVA Forum which everyone that attended enjoyed and commented on its success, organisation and in depth analysis of VAT matters. This was the first of many seminars to come as far as CYVA and VAT is concerned in an effort to inform as many people as possible about its importance, bearing in mind that VAT is by far the largest source of income for governments, including Cyprus.