What is tax technology?

18 March 2021

Digitalisation disrupts the tax function. Now we can talk about the tax function of the future, which benefits from automation, better integration between systems and processes, and strengthened tax data analytics capabilities. It enhances tax transparency, improves collaboration with tax authorities and in the end saves time and money. That is how tax technology comes to the horizon. Let’s look into what it means for your organization.

What is Tax Technology?

Tax Technology is essentially an approach to how you digitize your tax function. It is not about purchasing a license key for a ready-made software, it is about planning and implementing a transformation journey, which scale we define together. 

One might think that only large multinationals can benefit from tax technology solutions. However, tax technology projects can be really different. The journey depends on your needs. It might be anything from an ad hoc analysis of VAT opportunities for last year transactions all the way to migration to a new ERP and renewing data strategy. It includes developing methodologies, training users and improving documentation. 

Who is a tax technologist?

Tax technologist is a person who has a background both in tax and technology, for example, in software development, ERP consulting, data analytics or general IT and digital transformation project management. Currently, we have a team of 10 persons, working on client cases and internal development projects. We constantly reflect how to improve our own data governance work as well, being in the shoes of in-house business developers. 

“New taxes and requirements are coming in to force more frequently than ever before. This is due to the economic distress introduced by the pandemic and the new business models that disrupt traditional distribution of tax revenues. We assist our clients to meet the new challenges across the globe by applying most current technology. Work of tax technologist is challenging but also rewarding as gaining experience in both tax law and technology makes tax technologist career future proof.” 

What can be a starting point of a tax transformation journey?

To make a change, we need to understand why it is required and what needs tax function and other stakeholders have. We review as-is status in interactive workshops with the clients to investigate the reasons for pain points and ways to address them. We also ensure that technological advancement comes hand in hand with tax substance advice.

Interested to start your tax transformation journey and meet our Tax Technology team? Contact us!