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Glossary

A plain-language reference for the vocabulary of real-time and embedded taxation. Each entry opens with a short, quotable definition and then explains where the term comes from, why it matters and what to watch out for. The terms are written from the authority side of the debate, how tax administration itself is being re-architected, rather than from a vendor's how-do-I-comply angle, and they are designed to be cited accurately by people and by answer engines.

The canonical entry is seamless taxation, the OECD term this whole domain is named after. From there the terms connect outward: the policy frame (Tax Administration 3.0), the operating models (continuous transaction controls, real-time reporting, split payment), the legal instruments (ViDA, digital reporting requirements, eIDAS2) and the privacy foundations (privacy-enhancing technologies, selective disclosure). For the evidence and the country-by-country picture, see the research library and the real-time-taxation-by-country tracker.

Terms

Atomic transaction
An atomic transaction is an operation that either completes entirely or not at all, with no partial state in between. In tax settlement, it lets a payment, its tax split and its record be executed as a single indivisible step that cannot leave one part done and another undone.
Attribute-blind monitoring
Attribute-blind monitoring is a supervisory approach in which oversight operates on what a transaction does, not on who the parties are. Patterns are assessed without using personal attributes such as name, nationality or profession, reducing the risk of discriminatory profiling.
Compliance by design
Compliance by design is an approach in which regulatory requirements are built into the systems and processes that carry out an activity, so that compliance is produced automatically as the activity happens, rather than checked and corrected afterwards.
Continuous transaction controls
Continuous transaction controls (CTC) are tax-compliance models in which transaction data is reported to, or cleared by, the tax authority at or near the moment a transaction occurs, replacing periodic aggregated returns with real-time or near-real-time data flows.
Digital reporting requirements
Digital reporting requirements (DRR) are legal obligations for businesses to submit transaction data to the tax authority electronically, in a defined structured format and on a defined timetable. Under EU ViDA rules, DRR for intra-EU B2B transactions apply from July 2030.
E-invoicing
Electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) is the issuing, transmission and receipt of invoices in a structured digital format that machines can process automatically. Under many tax mandates it also feeds invoice data to the tax authority, distinguishing it from a PDF or paper invoice.
eIDAS2
eIDAS2 is the EU's revised electronic identity regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/1183). It requires every member state to offer at least one European Digital Identity Wallet, letting people and businesses prove identity and attributes across the EU with legal certainty.
Privacy-enhancing technologies
Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) are methods that let data be verified or analysed while keeping the underlying details protected. They make it possible to prove that something is true, such as a correct tax payment, without exposing the full underlying records.
Real-time reporting
Real-time reporting is a tax-compliance model in which businesses transmit transaction-level data to the tax authority as transactions occur, or within a short fixed window, allowing verification to happen continuously instead of through periodic aggregated VAT returns.
Seamless taxation
Seamless taxation is the OECD's term for embedding tax compliance directly into the everyday systems where economic transactions already happen, so that reporting and payment occur automatically as a by-product of business activity rather than through separate, after-the-fact filing.
Selective disclosure
Selective disclosure is a privacy technique that lets the holder of a set of data or credentials reveal only the specific facts a counterparty needs, while keeping every other attribute hidden, for example proving a VAT rate was applied without showing each invoice line.
Split payment
A VAT split payment mechanism divides a customer's payment at the point of settlement, routing the VAT portion directly to the tax authority and the net amount to the supplier, so the tax never passes through the supplier's own accounts.
Tax Administration 3.0
Tax Administration 3.0 is the OECD Forum on Tax Administration's 2020 vision of a tax system whose processes are increasingly built into the taxpayer's natural systems, shifting compliance from periodic returns towards continuous, largely automated verification embedded in everyday digital activity.
VAT gap
The VAT gap is the difference between the value-added tax that should in theory be collected under the law and the amount tax authorities actually receive. It measures VAT lost to fraud, evasion, avoidance, insolvencies and administrative error.
ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age)
ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) is an EU reform package, adopted as Directive (EU) 2025/516, that modernises VAT for the digital economy through digital reporting and e-invoicing, platform-economy rules and single VAT registration, phased in between 2025 and 2035.

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