Trends in Income Tax Reporting Automation

©March 2009, 17 pages

This report presents research findings pertaining to some of the issues, both internal and external to an organization, governing the introduction and implementation of automation in the 'reporting for income tax purposes' process. The focal point of this reaserch is a set of interviews with senior financial executives, conducted with the aim of gaining valuable insights from their practical, real-world experiences with tax automation. Among the many benefits being realized from tax automation are: • Reduced tax cycle time; • Less effort and more accuracy associated with tax data collection and transaction entries; • Increased process visibility and control; • Greater regulatory compliance and process standardization; • Increased financial transparency and comprehensive audit trails; • Fewer deficiencies identified by SOX reviews; and • Freeing up of resources for more higher-value tasks, such as tax planning, modeling and analysis. On the other side of the coin, most executives commented that the primary obstacles to tax automation are time and budget, along with traditional “change management” issues.