Digitizing Tax in the GCC

16 December 2019– Deloitte hosted an innovative series of ‘tax lab’ summits across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for businesses. The purpose of the sessions was to discuss how automation, digital protocols and methodologies would transform tax accounting, reporting and compliance in the region. The specific focus of the labs was on how both the public and private sector could design tax functions for the future. This included using design principles to structure tax departments and to build and implement technology architecture and embedded solutions.

“The level of tax transformation that we are seeing in the GCC region is
unprecedented,” said Jason Riche, Deloitte Middle East Tax Management
Consulting (TMC) leader. “The plethora of new taxes entering the region and the
speed with which this revolution is happening is causing a tidal wave of
C-suite level opportunities and concerns. Tax transformation and tax technology
will remain a key issue for the C-suite and boards for the foreseeable future.”

80% of those surveyed stated that their organizations were currently not automated from a tax perspective and 60% said their organizations were reactive and static. By contrast, 85% said they anticipated they would undergo large scale tax technology adaptation in the next 5 years and 90% aspired to have proactive and progressive tax functions in as little as the next 2 years.

“The statistics reported by the Deloitte Middle East tax labs suggest that the GCC
region is perhaps the area were we will see the most growth globally in tax
technology advancement in the next decade”, said Nauman Ahmed, Middle East Tax Leader. “The areas that our clients are telling us they are most
interested in are tax analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process
Automation.”

Stay tuned for Deloitte’s second round of tax labs kicking off in the Middle East
region in early 2020. 

To learn more about this topic, please follow this link: https://www2.deloitte.com/ae/en/pages/tax/articles/the-future-of-tax-and-legal.html

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About Deloitte & Touche (M.E.):

Deloitte & Touche (M.E.) (DME) is a licensed member firm of Deloitte Touche
Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) and is a leading professional services firm established in the Middle East region with uninterrupted presence since 1926. DME’s presence in the Middle East region is established through its affiliated independent legal entities which are licensed to operate and to provide services under the applicable laws and regulations of the relevant country. DME’s affiliates and related entities cannot oblige each other and/or DME, and when providing services, each affiliate and related entity engages directly and independently with its own clients and shall only be liable for its own acts or omissions and not those of any other affiliate.

DME provides audit and assurance, tax, consulting, financial advisory and risk advisory services through 25 offices in 14 countries with more than 3,300 partners, directors and staff. It has also received numerous awards in the last few years which include, Middle East Best Continuity and Resilience provider (2016), World Tax Awards (2017), Best Advisory and Consultancy Firm (2016), the Middle East Training & Development Excellence Award by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), as well as the best CSR integrated organization.