1 - More compliance and reporting requirements
- Tax governance requirements: are roles and responsibilities clear, with effective processes and escalation points.
- EU MDR requirements, CCO. AOEI, TRACE, QI programmes and new territories.
- Tax transparency e.g. uncertain tax positions, tax strategy and management reporting.
2 - More demand for data
- Withholding tax requirements – holding period requirements for securities around dividend dates, capital gains threshold monitoring.
- Investor reporting on tax claims/value reconciliation and cash flows on reclaims/relief at source.
- Issue and action tracking, prioritisation and escalation of actions, Workflow.
3 - Tax authority digitisation
- Tax authorities are investing in smarter tools and analytics.
- Likelihood of increased scrutiny/audit. Increasing requests for data to support filing positions.
- Examples include Austria, Germany, Finland, Estonia, Mexico, Singapore.
4 - More demand, less resource
- Business is focussed on a reduced cost to serve, whilst adding value to products through increased after tax return.
- Delivering insight, managing risk and protecting value take time and effort.
- Tax automation can result in a 69% reduction in operational cost of delivering tax reporting.
5 - Tech enablement
- Finance and business transformation opportunities, drive for better information and user friendly information.
- Opportunity to automate processes, use data analytics and shift away from manual spreadsheets.
- Many new technologies are available which make a difference.
6 - Tax function effectiveness
- Tax functions need to develop different skill sets.
- Collaboration extends beyond tax – operational, product, legal, custody.
- Technology enables greater flexibility for employees and an ability to work across geographies.
