Three ways to improve your corporate tax compliance

This hinders global trade efforts as supply chains are constantly threatened by international conflicts. This hampers regulatory cooperation

and

exacerbates internal conflicts and challenges for many businesses.For trade professionals, adapting to this fractured and frustrating world has meant becoming experts at developing contingency plans and workarounds to keep supply chains running smoothly. Tax teams in unpredictable markets face a constant struggle to keep up with deadlines, regulatory changes and new compliance processes. Tax errors, audits and fines can all lead to a loss in revenue for businesses. But even more important, they can also result in a lack of customer confidence. Any corporate tax compliance process is incomplete without accurate data management from reliable sources. The tax data challenge Managing tax data can be difficult in today’s business world. The rapid growth of data accessible across disparate systems and disconnected networks makes it difficult to keep track of details and information. Nearly half (45%) of tax departments describe their position as reactive and 21% say it’s chaotic. Yet, these are often the areas of business least likely to be ahead of the curve, especially when it comes to optimization and technology.

Nearly one-half (45%) of tax departments describe their position as reactive and 21% say it’s chaoticWhile C-suite professionals are often the ones responsible for seeing (and approving) the broader strategic approach to tax, trade, and technology in any business, they often also lack clarity and visibility across these areas, meaning their decisions are less well-informed.

A more unified approach to tax and trade can help manage these risks and ensure compliance, helping organizations achieve their strategic goals across every stage of the business lifecycle.

As experts in technology and with years of experience supporting and advising tax and trade professionals around the world, we’ve identified three essential tax data management strategies, that every business should aspire to:

1: Integrating tax data from a single source of truth

Technology solutions with additional

generative AI capabilities can seamlessly integrate data from disparate processes (ERP, customs systems, etc.) to create a single source of truth, reducing risk by incorporating changing tax regulations and calculations across a variety of jurisdiction requirements.

In addition, tax technology that automates routine tasks and manual reporting can help streamline processes, reducing errors, and freeing up time and resources for wider strategic collaboration.

A single vendor tax and trade solution like Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE(tm), can not only improve data consistency, workflow efficiency, and overall collaboration, but can also provide insights into tax and trade performance, which can be used to identify opportunities for improvement and help businesses make more strategic, data-driven decisions.

• 2: Implementing a tax data hub to eliminate errorsConsolidating tax data from various sources and overcoming the complexities of tax data management can be made easier with the implementation of a data hub – a centralized data warehouse designed specifically for tax information. Tax professionals have long recognized the benefits of having a single source of data that is designed to house tax information, and can integrate with reporting software. Streamlining audit requests and allowing access to historical data can eliminate errors. Standardized and efficient data import processes, like transferring or sharing data with outsourced service providers via the hub infrastructure, multi-year tax attribute support, and cloud-based hosting to provide unlimited storage can provide efficiencies and cost savings. A trusted source of up-to-date information can help transform raw data into actionable tax insights, and help businesses prepare for audit readiness.
• 3: Automating manual tax processes to increase efficiency and accuracyBespoke APIs and connectors can help automate tedious data transfers, speeding up tax compliance reporting, also helping reduce manual errors and improve data quality within the organization.
• Automation can streamline tax processes and free up resources by accelerating monthly close and reducing manual tasks.

• Clearer data flow can simplify data requests and reduce repetitive processes, as well as improving inter-departmental collaboration.
• Achieving tax data excellence
• Successfully managing constantly changing tax data across multiple geographies, regulatory jurisdictions and business functions needs careful planning, communication, and collaboration. Actionable steps for implementing clear data management strategies should include:

• Establishing clear ownership, responsibilities, and data quality standards
• Implementing data validation and cleansing processes to ensure accuracy
• Selecting and implementing appropriate data management tools and platforms

Communicating the benefits of data management to the rest of the business

Providing appropriate training to employeesConsistently monitoring data quality and performance metrics

• Regularly identifying areas for improvement and making necessary adjustments.

• What can you do for your business to both grow and manage corporate tax compliance?

• When we asked tax professionals about technology growth within their businesses, most (78%) expected to see an increase in their technology capabilities.65% of tax professionals think that their technology budgets will grow, and 41% already have initiatives in place to broaden digital transformation within their departments

• Robust tax data management is crucial in helping organizations navigate current compliance complexities. A single, secure source of data can make it easier and cheaper to keep track of. It is also important to improve technology in order to improve data flow across departments, systems, and geographies. Finally, automating time-consuming manual tasks can help not only speed up the process but also prevent tax errors and mitigate compliance risk.

• Time to take action and join the thousands of tax professionals who trust Thomson Reuters tax solutions to help them navigate into the future.

• For more information on how Thomson Reuters can help inform the way forward for your tax data needs visit https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/en/onesource

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