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Tax Transformation
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More than half of businesses aren’t meeting their tax transformation goals. Learn why digitization requires a reboot of your transformation approach.
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When companies embark on implementing new ERP systems, tax needs can often end up as an afterthought. Yet EY research shows how critical it is for the tax function to work alongside finance from the project’s inception.
Tax departments that do work with finance overwhelmingly report that their tax data was sensitized during the ERP implementation process. Sensitizing data up-front enables teams to get the necessary tax information faster, and to use that information strategically as opposed to reactively.
Without close collaboration, both tax and finance teams encounter high levels of inefficiency and additional cost in meeting regulatory requirements and are exposed to greater levels of risk.
“We saw a worst-case scenario example recently, where tax was not involved in the planning discussions at all,” says Campbell. “Under the new ERP system, tax actually lost some of the data it had in the old system and was unable to report properly. There was then a big scramble to try to figure out how tax would even get that information. And the eventual workaround was a lot more expensive than it would have been just to design it right to start with.”
The latest ERP systems have added new tax-specific capabilities, improving the quality of data as well as processes for tax purposes, thereby allowing tax personnel to focus more effectively on such value-added activities as business integration and tax planning.
According to the EY 2022 Global Tax Technology and Transformation Survey Report, more than half of respondents that have undergone an ERP upgrade in the last two years believe it was a success. Fifty-three percent said they disagree with the notion that their recent ERP upgrade has not yet delivered on expected value.
With 46% of companies having recently completed or planning for a major ERP upgrade in the next two years, tax teams should ensure they have reserved a seat at the ERP implementation table. If they don’t, they may find their reporting requirements simply are not met.