# Octobat official blog

## [Our mission](https://blog.octobat.com/our-mission)

When we started Octobat, our vision was to build an ultra-fast, one-click, and compliant integration with all payment gateways in order to create invoices for every online transaction. We have expanded this vision to offer seamless tools that will allow online sellers to simplify the tax reporting, accounting consolidation and to speed up the tax filing process in a unique and user-friendly interface.

## 🇮🇪[ Ireland cuts VAT rate from 23% to 21% for 6 months](https://blog.octobat.com/product/ireland-cuts-vat-rate-from-23-to-21)

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, Ireland announced that the domestic *VAT* rate will be cut from 23 to 21 percent from September 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021. This article summarizes how Octobat is handling this update, to help you to stay compliant without lots of headaches... [Read more](https://blog.octobat.com/product/ireland-cuts-vat-rate-from-23-to-21)

## 🇩🇪 [Germany cuts VAT from 19% to 16% until 31 Dec 2020](https://blog.octobat.com/product/germany-vat-rate-cuts-july-1)

![](https://3843789513-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M9XmufGSzocblFjMolW%2F-M9Xn89WrP-BoTbgBI_S%2F-M9YOMTLIbywzPe_13Fu%2Fde-vat-update.svg?alt=media\&token=2a513c60-f5d2-4880-a88c-b717da7b7fd1)

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, Germany announced that *VAT* will be cut from 19 to 16 percent from July 1 to December 31 this year. This article summarizes how Octobat is handling this update, to help you to stay compliant without lots of headaches... [Read more](https://blog.octobat.com/product/germany-vat-rate-cuts-july-1)