Tax management consulting

Tax department strategy, risk management and operating model

In our view the world’s leading tax departments integrate business strategy and risk management into their tax organisation and operating model. Deloitte advises organisations’ tax departments as they seek to align tax operations to their business strategy often in conjunction with a finance transformation project. Services include helping the tax function develop its strategy and providing analysis of organisational models, roles and responsibilities; job skill requirements; performance measurement; and governance and controls within a tax department. We may also assist with the integration of a business’s processes for tax compliance, tax audit and evaluating and managing its tax rate, which can include determining whether appropriate key performance indicators for performance management are in place.

Tax technology

Tax departments today often face significant resource constraints, requiring an increased focus on efficiency and effective use of technology to streamline their compliance and reporting processes. Overreliance on spreadsheets, outdated technology, and a lack of integration between tax and finance systems can hamper a tax departments’ ability to obtain and analyse the data needed for timely and accurate tax compliance and reporting. 

Deloitte assists tax departments in understanding requirements for the design, selection, and implementation of tax software for global and local purposes for both direct and indirect taxes. We have extensive experience of the major tax technologies available and our services include helping clients to make appropriate technology choices and configuring and integrating those choices through the entire record-to-report business cycle for tax. Typical solutions include enterprise systems, middleware, tax applications and management reporting dashboards.

In particular, the integration of tax data requirements into enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is increasingly critical for tax departments to operate effectively. We can advise organisations wishing to tax enable their ERP systems, including the direct and indirect tax requirements and the related data to support their tax-related activities on a global basis. We also assist with data retention, document management, and the prioritisation of controls. 

Tax information is increasingly important to management’s ability to plan and forecast. Deloitte’s Tax Management Consulting teams can assist organisations leverage data analytics for tax and assess the data and information produced. In addition, we can assist businesses gain insights into past tax performance and how tax technologies, applications, and leading practices can help tax department plan and executive tax management more effectively.

Global compliance outsourcing

There’s been considerable change in the tax world - change that has radically affected tax compliance and reporting. We’ve seen globalisation, emerging markets, increased regulation, revenue authorities adopting a more sophisticated and commercial approach and the spread of mandatory electronic filing all driving businesses to embrace new tax technology and benefit from the opportunities faster, more accurate processing can bring.

As a result many businesses are rethinking their approach. In a recent Deloitte research project involving over 250 global companies, many said they were already implementing enterprise systems, introducing shared service centers and looking  for a single global service provider, offering integrated tax compliance and reporting services. A desire for improved quality and visibility was seen, with any new approach needing to be flexible and tailored, aligning with an organisation and its unique resourcing needs.  Download the Global Tax Compliance and Reporting Current Insight and Future Trends report which provides more informational and highlights important findings.

Over the last two years, more than 500 Deloitte people from 50 countries have been rethinking tax compliance and reporting services.  We have focused on the three main elements, process, technology and resourcing models.

To understand the Deloitte approach to global compliance outsourcing please watch the short video below, available in English, Spanish, Mandarin and Japanese, which demonstrates the case for change and our CRS solution.

As compliance and reporting is never a case of ‘one method fits all’ Deloitte offers compliance services in a way that can be matched and tailored to an organisations circumstances. For example:

Method 1 – Decentralised

All the work is done locally in-country. There’s no global overlay, but the service is delivered using standardized global processes and technologies.

Method 2 – Co-ordinated

There’s an important proportion of the work done locally, but it’s brought together, coordinated and managed at a single headquarter location near a client’s HQ.

Method 3 – Centralised

As well as coordination through an HQ office, delivery of the services is undertaken centrally through compliance centers supported by local office engagement teams.

Rethinking compliance and reporting has put technology in the spotlight. Deloitte has deployed global systems to efficiently collect company data and generate tax and other returns or reports.

Engagement management systems are a critical part of successful tax compliance and reporting. Deloitte Tax Insight is an intelligent engagement management system, written in the latest Microsoft SharePoint software, it offers workflow task lists, information dashboards, status reports, and temporary document storage, as well as areas for team and engagement management.

Finally, effective teams have the right resourcing mix. Deloitte has offices in 150 countries and a network of specialist compliance and reporting partners and teams experienced in delivering complex global compliance services. We have an established network of compliance centers: a European center in Belgium that has been in operation for more than 10 years, other ‘near-shore’ centers in South America, and Asia Pacific, and a ‘far-shore’ center in India.

Further understand the Deloitte approach to our service centers through the video below, which gives a virtual tour of the Deloitte Global Tax Center Europe (GTCE), located in Belgium. The center handles over 31,000 VAT and CIT returns in more than 40 countries, and files more than 750 statutory accounts every year for many large organisations.