How tax compliance data can be used to address the most important issues for your CEOs

According to our latest CEO Survey, 72% of UK CEOs worry about increasing tax obligations. 70% want to drive growth through operational efficiency. Tax departments will now be under greater pressure to do more with less, and reduce costs and turnaround times. Using tax data efficiently is key to achieving these goals.

To deal with the current wave and uncertainty, companies are striving to improve their operational resilience. Tax functions must be able respond quickly to changes in the regulatory environment, tech disruptions, and Brexit.

It is not enough to keep the business running as normal. This is a difficult task in its own right. Tax functions need to gather data, create scenarios and give business decision-makers the information they need in order to assess risks and ensure compliance.

Data is the core of modern tax compliance. Tax departments must be able to harness automation and learn new skills to better utilize the data they have and to tackle these problems.

Compliance is still a key function. Tax departments must rethink how they approach compliance in order to keep up with the increased use of AI and analytics technology by tax authorities. HMRC’s Connect data analysis software, for example, not only collects traditional data from individuals and companies, but also makes use of publicly available information such as data from social media. HMRC has been able to collect additional PS4bn in taxes during its four-year first use.

Tax teams can extract data faster and automate the compliance process. This allows them to put the data to multiple uses and provide value-added analysis for businesses. Tax functions can make better use of data to ensure compliance and increase transparency.

How can tax functions accomplish all of this? These data problems can be solved by tax experts and clever thinking.

One client, for example, reduced the number of lines that needed to be manually reviewed by around 90%. Our automation technology allowed them to match and remove all contra entries in just minutes instead of days. Another client gathered data from multiple sources and automated 85% tax analysis using our automation technology. All this while keeping a complete audit trail and increasing quality and efficiency.

The key question is whether these innovative approaches can be best delivered in-house, if possible, or whether flexible sourcing that brings in outside expertise is a better option to access these technologies and skills. For some businesses, building new automated tax processes in-house is the best option. Outsourcing some or all of their tax delivery requirements will help them ensure compliance and solve data problems. Outsourcing allows you to access highly skilled tax compliance professionals as well as technology, processes, and analytics capabilities that may not be possible to duplicate in-house. This allows businesses to concentrate on the new insights they get from their tax team.

You need to rethink how you approach tax compliance. It all revolves around data and making it work for your benefit.