Deloitte announced the launch of its 2023 Tax Transformation Trends survey, a biannual effort which details sentiments from more than 300 senior global tax and finance executives and examines “how tax departments are undergoing fundamental transformation in response to today’s challenging legal and regulatory landscape.”
To respond effectively to increasingly complex changes – including OECD Pillar Two requirements and the rise in indirect taxes around the world – tax departments will need both access “to accurate and timely tax-related data across their company’s global operations and the ability to work with tax teams that have data management and technology expertise.”
Key themes from the 2023 Tax Transformation Trends Survey:
- Holistic data management and integrated systems are required for insight-driven global compliance. The importance of complying with a changing tax environment was reflected in the challenges that tax departments are expected to face over the next three to five years, with complying with evolving tax laws and regulations around the world (43%) being cited most often.
- Costs and efficiency are still important, but not the top priority for tax transformation efforts. Although responding to changing tax laws and regulations has moved to the top of the agenda for many tax departments, achieving greater efficiency remains an important objective.
- Outsourcing is a prime strategy to access technology capabilities. Outsourcing has long been recognized as a tool for increasing efficiency, but access to technology tools is now an even more important driver. Respondents cited access to the latest technology capabilities (54%) even more often than reduced operating costs (51%) as a major or significant benefit of outsourcing an entire activity or function in the tax department.
- Tax isn’t just done in the tax department anymore. There has been a notable trend, at least since 2016, to move key tax activities outside of the tax department, either to other functions within the company or to third-party providers.
Deloitte surveyed 300 senior tax and finance leaders “at companies across a range of industries, sizes, and regions to understand their future vision for the tax function and how they plan to achieve that vision.”
Deloitte also conducted a series of qualitative individual interviews “with senior tax executives at large multinational companies to develop deeper insights into their tax transformation efforts. Click here to read the executive summary.”