Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

The statistics provide complete coverage of all Danish VAT declarations, and the primary data are clearly defined on the basis of a detailed set of rules and established practices with systematic administrative controls.

The VAT information regarding domestic purchases of firms, the category purchases total and the domestic sale of firms are regarded high quality, since these information has an influence on the VAT payments of companies, which can be inspected by "SKAT". On the other hand VAT information regarding export and sales not payable to VAT and thereby also the category sales total is expected to be more uncertain.

There are no calculations of uncertainty.

Sampling error

Not relevant for these statistics.

Non-sampling error

Estimation: It is normally the yearly turnover of a firm that determines its VAT declaration frequency, which is monthly if the amount exceeds DKK 50 million, quarterly in the interval between DKK 5 million and DKK 50 million, and half-yearly if it is less than DKK 5 million.

Given that results must be published for the total population of units - both big and small firms - it is necessary to estimate (impute) figures for the quarterly and half-yearly declarers (and for the monthly declarers not yet received). Once the quarterly and half-yearly VAT declarations are received, the reported figures replace the estimated ones, but the breakdown into months of the Joint registration: Another problem is joint registration of legal units, which means that one VAT declaration covers two or more legal units, for instance two firms in different kind-of-activity groups or different locations.

Statistics Denmark has no way of knowing exactly how to allocate these monthly reported amounts among the individual legal units of a joint registration. The method used is to apply standard distribution percentages to each amount of a joint declaration.

In these instances we have chosen to distribute purchases and sales to the individual units proportionate to their latest information about employment and the turnover per employed in the industry, so as to make the turn over of the industry more exact. This mechanical update of the distribution plan is a methodological change, that can influence the distribution of turn over on industries.

Exporting units: Conversely, in some cases a legal unit may cover two or more (partial) registration units. Ordinarily, the VAT declarations concerned can be simply added up to represent the legal unit, but not if one of the partial units is an exporting unit. In order to claim an early refund of VAT paid on raw materials and other inputs forming part of products intended for export, some major business enterprises have opted for separate exporting units which make fictitious purchases of the products from the other partial units before exporting them. In order to avoid double counting in such cases, Statistics Denmark consolidates the exporting units with the other partial units to form the entire legal unit, but in practice it is not always possible to do this exactly correct.

Administrative checks: The VAT system has some inherent checks and balances as regards domestic purchases and sales because the VAT received by one business is the VAT paid (and deductible) by another in a chain reaching right down to the final consumer. However, in the case of exports no or very little VAT is collected, so the administrative checks may not be very thorough because they are not so important from a financial point of view.

Quality management

Statistics Denmark follows the recommendations on organisation and management of quality given in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and the implementation guidelines given in the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF). A Working Group on Quality and a central quality assurance function have been established to continuously carry through control of products and processes.

Quality assurance

Statistics Denmark follows the principles in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and uses the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF) for the implementation of the principles. This involves continuous decentralized and central control of products and processes based on documentation following international standards. The central quality assurance function reports to the Working Group on Quality. Reports include suggestions for improvement that are assessed, decided and subsequently implemented.

Quality assessment

The statistics provide complete coverage of all Danish VAT declarations, and the primary data are defined on the basis of a detailed set of rules and established practices with systematic administrative controls. The VAT information regarding domestic purchases of firms, the category purchases total and the domestic sale of firms are regarded high quality, since these information has an influence on the VAT payments of companies, which can be inspected by SKAT. On the other hand VAT information regarding export and sales not payable to VAT and thereby also the category sales total is expected to be more uncertain.

There are no calculations of uncertainty.

Data revision - policy

Statistics Denmark revises published figures in accordance with the Revision Policy for Statistics Denmark. The common procedures and principles of the Revision Policy are for some statistics supplemented by a specific revision practice.

Data revision practice

When firms update their tax declaration the data in the statistics is updated and is hence provisional in all periods. The tax declaration can be revised three and a half year back, but will usually primarily be revised in the latest periods. In special cases a firm can be allowed to change its tax declaration several years back but this happens rarely and does not significantly affect the statistics.

The tables FIKS11, FIKS22 and FIKS33 in "StatBank Denmark" are monthly tables, and they are made when data from "Skattestyrelsen" arrives.

The table FIKS44 with the most detailed industry divisions is also updated every month with the latest data from "Skattestyrelsen", but a new period in the table is only published when the firms that declare quarterly have declared the VAT.

There can be revisions, which cover more years.