Tax Technology (#68)
/This podcast episode covers how you can apply the most current tax technology to the filing needs of a business. Key points made are:
Tax technology is based on compliance, filling out tax forms; regulatory complexity drives the output of these systems.
Tax technology tends to be 5-10 years behind other business systems.
It is relatively common for tax software to be tied into a corporate ERP system.
Tax laws are so specialized now that few people are authorities on all tax areas of a business.
An overriding goal for a public company is to make sure that there are no tax surprises, since the CEO and CFO are certifying that the financial statements are accurate. This means that incorrect tax filing calculations must be eliminated.
The Big Four audit firms are taking the best tax talent away from corporations, so the corporate level of expertise is falling.
A tax department needs good policies and procedures, as well as data collection systems for both structured and unstructured data. It must have a high level of real-time access, combined with excellent data security. All tax filings should be based on a single database.
Best to use software as a service, in order to have a central database that is readily accessible from anywhere.
Tax software should include modules for data collection, project management, resource management, audit management, and tax filings.
Tax professionals will still use electronic spreadsheets, but should exercise tight control over them.