The future of tax talent

Rethinking the work, workforce, and workplace

As companies look beyond the pandemic, they’re asking their tax functions to play a bigger advisory role‒for example, providing strategic counsel on issues such as emerging digital business models and sustainable transformation. Tax leaders need to transform their technology infrastructures to free up team capacity, operate more efficiently, and use data more effectively. Meanwhile, all this change is happening during a global shift to remote and hybrid working. These trends have profound implications for the future of the tax function: how the work gets done, what skills the workforce needs, and how the workplace is defined.

Key insight 2: Tax workforce

How has the talent mix changed?

Tax leaders recognize their teams need entirely new technical skills, with data analytics (45%) and technology transformation (43%) at the top of their wish lists. However, these team members also need to flex their cross-business advisory (39%) and cross-business interfacing and education (35%) skills. This means tax leaders must upskill and diversify the roles on their teams to meet the rising demand to be business advisors.

Tax is leaving the tax department. We’re being pulled much closer into areas such as government relations and sustainability—it’s changing the balance of responsibilities for our team.

Mike Munoz, VP Tax and Treasurer, Suncor

Tax leaders are prioritizing these strategies to help their teams manage compliance workloads

Using automation and relying on shared service centres are the top choices for tax leaders looking to use lower-cost resource models for routine tax-complaince work.

The adoption of advanced technologies will allow us to create better insights for the divisions that we support. When a function asks us about the tax implications of a transaction they want to make, we can say to them: ‘You know what? We can see stuff that you can’t. And here are some insights that can drive your business and your profitability’.

Global head of tax, at a global bank

What companies are looking for is a beautiful unicorn who knows everything about tax and everything about technology.

Tim Rupert, Professor of Accounting, Northeastern University

The future of the tax workforce

The elusive tax unicorn
Developing more hybrid professionals means that tax and finance leaders need to think much differently when it comes to recruiting and professional development. The ideal tax professional will have a blend of technological, strategic advisory, and legislative specialist skills, and will aspire to grow in areas where they need to develop.

You need to go and hire [the data and technology specialists], but it will take time for them to become productive. And the best thing to do, in my view, is to partner them with business analysts who understand banking and the business lines, because it’s when they start to talk the same language that you get the real lift.

Global head of tax, at a global bank

Power pairings

Whichever route companies take to develop hybrid tax-technology professionals, it will take time. But few tax leaders can wait two or more years for this—their digital challenges are urgent. So, some are doing the next best thing: pairing technology specialists with business analysts or other specialists in the wider finance team to combine their expertise on specific projects.

Examples of pairings that work:

1. Internal technology specialists with business analysts or others in finance.
2. In-house tax specialists with tax-technology specialists from consulting firms or other third parties that are experienced in technology and transformation.
3. Junior staff with analytics and software licences. Younger employees are digital natives who may have been introduced to data analytics and other technologies in university programs. They can bring more value when given the tools and opportunity.

You need to ensure that you don’t end up with the remote workforce becoming a disadvantaged employee group. There needs to be clarity about how they get visibility for strong performance and how opportunities and promotions are decided upon, among other things. You need to fully address these issues directly and transparently, and not just write them into corporate policy and hope that’s enough to effectively manage such a culture change.

Mike Munoz, VP Tax and Treasurer, Suncor

The main challenges of remote working for the tax department

Reimagine your team’s tax talent experience

In the first report in our three-part Deloitte tax transformation-trends series, we explore how the tax department has reached a tipping point that’s forcing leaders to rethink their tax operating models. We discover in this second report that these changes have had a butterfly effect on the experience of those working in tax, and discuss how the tax function has not been immune to these external forces of change—and give some practical advice on what to do about it.

Explore tax talent content

At the heart of every tax and finance department is its people. Learn more about how you can augment your own resources to tap diverse, hard-to-hire skill sets and expertise—and decide if it is best to build these skills and competencies in-house or look externally to leverage specialized expertise when and where it is needed most.