VAT topical ontology

The VAT topical ontology is a formal knowledge resource developed by the ‘Centrum voor Vaktaal en Communicatie’ (http://cvc.ehb.be/) and the ‘Semantics Technologies And Applications Research Laboratory’ (http://www.starlab.vub.ac.be/default.htm/), in collaboration with VAT Applications NV (http://www.vatat.com/), a company specialized in VAT. The scope of the ontology, visualised in the figure below, covers all VAT issues addressed by the European Taxation and Customs Union (http:// europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/index_en.htm/):

Scope of the VAT ontology

Following STAR Lab’s Application Knowledge Engineering Methodology (AKEM), based on the DOGMA approach, the ontology is developed to support several VAT applications. For instance, it can be used for ontology-based information extraction to assist both tax authorities as well as traders in extracting specific knowledge about companies. In a legal context, it can be used in document management or question answering systems in order to retrieve relevant legislative texts or even particular sections in VAT law based on specific concept-queries. Furthermore, the ontology can be used to support a so-called reader’s assistant in providing extra VAT-related information about concepts appearing in e.g. company websites. 

More information about the AKEM methodology, the DOGMA approach as well as the FF POIROT VAT topical ontology can be found in the following articles:

References

Jarrar, M. & Meersman, R.: Formal Ontology Engineering in the DOGMA Approach. In: Meersman, R. et al. (eds.): On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2002: CoopIS, DOA, and ODBASE. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (2002) 1238–1254.

Kerremans, K., Desmeytere, I., Temmerman, R. and Wille, P. (2005). "Application-oriented terminography in financial forensics". Terminology, vol. 11:1.

Zhao, G., Kingston, J., Kerremans, K., Verlinden, R., Coppens, F., Temmerman, R. and Meersman, R. (2004) "Engineering an Ontology of Financial Securities Fraud". In: Robert Meersman, Zahir Tari & Angelo Corsaro (eds.) OTM 2004 Workshops: OTM Confederated International Workshops and Posters, GADA, JTRES, MIOS, WORM, WOSE, PhDS, and INTEROP 2004. Heidelberg: Springer Verlag.