Automation of tax reporting and compliance

Income tax reporting and compliance obligations have always been the focus of internal and external financial reporting. The same applies to international legislators who want to secure their national tax bases through, among other things, amended and new regulations. The global minimum tax and public CbCR are just the latest examples that place further demands on local and central tax functions in addition to traditional tax reporting and compliance processes.  

Technological progress and digitalization enable the necessary increase in process efficiency while improving data quality at the same time. They create new opportunities for the structured collection, evaluation and use of tax-relevant data. For tax departments, these opportunities also result in a certain amount of pressure to optimize existing processes while implementing new requirements promptly and digitally. 

The main subject areas are: 

• Tax accounting and reporting in individual and consolidated financial statements
• Tax compliance, tax calculation and tax declaration including e-balance sheet
• IFRS Group reporting
• Tax reporting and compliance in connection with public CbCR and global minimum tax

Typical obstacles to integrated and automated processes include heterogeneous upstream systems and data structures, different requirements for the level of detail of the data, a lack of standardization in the processes and suboptimal technical solutions for the company-specific tax tasks.

The framework for digital end-to-end processes is more or less defined by upstream processes and IT systems that are outside the direct sphere of influence of the tax department. This requires customized solutions for automation, which are designed and implemented in a differentiated manner according to the respective circumstances. Cooperation with other areas of the company outside the tax function, in particular with accounting and IT, is important here.

End-to-end automation as the key to success

End-to-end automation of the relevant processes is the key to meeting these challenges and increasing adaptability to future changes. At the same time, it helps to free up employee capacity for higher-value tasks, which has an additional positive effect on work results. Specialist knowledge, relevant IT know-how and methodological expertise, relevant experience and a great deal of skill in dealing with the "human factor", i.e. also in stakeholder and change management, are required to master such automation projects. 

Based on our "DNA" and extensive market experience, one of our core competencies at WTS Digital is to automate our clients' income tax processes from end to end in the course of projects, to support their ongoing operations and to help our clients keep them fit. For tailor-made solutions, we combine proven standard solutions with innovative software systems and automation approaches, including solutions designed and developed by us if required.