Tax Technology and Transformation

In a world reshaped by transformation, a human-led and tech-powered tax function can drive and sustain value throughout your organisation.

Many organisations have had to reevaluate their tax operating model due to economic uncertainty, cost pressures and digitisation, along with both international and domestic regulatory changes. To thrive in the future, organisations must simplify their operations and optimise tax processes through a sustainable, technology-driven tax transformation strategy. At PwC, we leverage our extensive industry expertise and the latest technology to help organisations enhance their tax functions, develop and implement customised tax transformation plans, and unlock strategic value.

Our tax technology solutions

Tax process transformation
The future tax professional
Tax transformation strategy
Alignment and integration

Tax process transformation

Many businesses have kept their tax processes and procedures static for several years and are yet to take advantage of the benefits modern technology can offer. It is important to assess whether your tax processes are well-defined and efficient and whether automation can improve them. These processes should also be built to withstand an increasingly demanding tax landscape, with robust data security protocols to protect sensitive tax data and procedures for backing up and recovering data in emergencies.

For instance, a tax compliance process may require extracting data from various systems, which can be a time-consuming task. However, self-service data management and low-code tools can automate the data extraction, clean-up and transformation process. By harnessing GenAI’s transformative potential, businesses can streamline their tax processes, analyse complex and vast datasets, perform analyses to uncover discrete patterns and enable new tax transformation opportunities.

Reducing the time spent on existing tax processes can help businesses save resources, which can instead be used for continuous improvement opportunities and enhanced operational efficiency. This is particularly important in a cost-focused environment.

The future tax professional

The tax professionals of the future will need to be highly proficient in data analysis, statistics, technology, process mapping and improvement, and change management. It’s worth considering whether individuals within your organisation have untapped technology experience or skills, and whether they are ready to upskill and share their knowledge. More and more tax functions are hiring dedicated taxologists and data and project management specialists. These experts can develop, champion and execute tax technology and transformation strategies.

However, resource limitations often challenge the tax function. An effective tax transformation strategy can help ease this pain by improving the work experience and empowering an innovative and agile team. In light of the changing tax world, businesses are transitioning towards holistic corporate responsibility, aligning tax strategies with sustainability objectives. The future tax professional will serve as a strategic guide in this journey, harnessing cutting-edge technologies and GenAI for significant advantages. Many companies are already realising cost and efficiency gains across various operations, and the tax function is high on the list of opportunities.

Tax transformation strategy

When developing a comprehensive tax transformation strategy, your tax function must evaluate its maturity model: identify the current position, determine the desired future state, and define the path to reach that objective. It is also essential to consider the scope and budget for acquiring beneficial technology solutions. GenAI can help organisations develop a tax transformation strategy, offer functional enhancements and forecast potential implementation challenges.

When evaluating tax technology procurement, consider your existing enterprise platforms. Your organisation should align tax with the scope and timing of ongoing and future transformation and other enterprise investments. Areas gaining traction are leveraging low-code automation and existing enterprise platforms for tax purposes. Can existing software be enhanced or modified, or does your business hold technology licences the tax team can use?

Integrating tax solutions is a practical approach driven by the end-user, compared to large-scale enterprise-wide transformation or tax engine implementation projects. Pursuing automation using existing enterprise platforms can be a compelling reason for cost optimisation.

Alignment and integration

If you haven’t yet considered automating your tax and finance functions, you should. Many leading teams have already embraced this trend and are using evolving technological capabilities to become more efficient and more capable. Finance functions are transforming enterprise systems by moving to GenAI-enabled, cloud-based solutions. Integrating tax requirements within transformation initiatives including sustainability-related initiatives is vital, ensuring compliance and contributing to sustainability goals.

To begin with, consider how your tax function operates. Determine how well integrated it is with finance and identify the biggest blockers to technology investments. Consider whether there are ways to streamline complex tax processes and identify tasks that could yield high returns over time.

Aligning tax requirements with business objectives is vital to building a solid business case for tax and securing buy-in. Start with small automation projects using low-code tools as these can solve problems and streamline tasks, making life easier for tax professionals.