KPMG Tax Survey: Tax leaders using technology to drive change in the boardroom

European CEOs and tax leaders are transforming their tax departments through technology to support broader organizational goals, according to KPMG's latest Global Tax Department Benchmarking Survey.

LONDON, June 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Launched at this week's 2019 KPMG EMA Region Tax Summit in London, the report on the changing roles and responsibilities of tax departments holds some interesting parallels with the findings of KPMG's Global CEO Outlook, released in May. Together, the two reports show the opportunity for tax leaders to leave behind their operational roots and become a more strategic partner to the CEO.

Barriers to growth

According to the 2019 KPMG Global CEO Outlook less than 1 percent of CEOs in Europe identified tax risk as a barrier to growth. Mindful of this potential 'blind spot' among chief execs, tax leaders have a responsibility to remind them that while they may be relaxed about the impact of tax risk on their growth plans, the most commonly identified barriers to growth will all have tax implications: the return to territorialism (18 percent of CEOs), emerging and disruptive technologies (18 percent) and environmental and climate change (17 percent).

"It is vital that tax leaders are informing their CEOs about the risks relating to tax in these areas and across the business," said Jane McCormick, Global Head of Tax & Legal, KPMG International. "Today's tax leaders need to be able to speak to their CEOs about tax in a compelling way that goes well beyond providing technical expertise and compliance oversight. Organizations need their tax leaders to step up as overall strategic thinkers for the business and its reputational goals, going beyond their traditional responsibilities."

Transforming the tax department

CEOs are showing a healthy appetite for innovation, and KPMG's tax research suggests that tax leaders in Europe and around the world are primed to support their plans by driving transformational change. Using technology to improve processes, exploring outsourcing and co-sourcing opportunities to gain efficiencies, and investing in new skills for their workforce are three areas of particular focus for tax departments.

About half of respondents expect a moderate increase in their use of co-source resources from tax providers (49 percent) and finance Shared Services Centers (52 percent). Almost as many respondents (43 percent) plan to increase their use of centers of excellence for key functions such as transfer pricing and transaction support.

While these kinds of operational changes are in line with the types of innovation CEOs are seeking, there may still be a disparity between what tax leaders are seeing and their CEOs' awareness of the complexities, risks and opportunities relating to today's tax environment and the tax function itself. 

Tax leaders of the future

The tax benchmarking survey also shows some emerging shifts in how tax leaders in Europe see themselves and their ability to add value within their organizations. In addition to helping their leadership teams and boards navigate the demands of today's tax environment, the survey suggests tax leaders recognize the need to develop new skillsets within their departments in order to help deliver more value in ways that reflect their evolving roles as business leaders and the changing needs of their organizations. Alongside this call to expand the capabilities within their functions, tax departments in the region continue to operate in a challenging environment, rife with uncertainty. Adding to the challenges facing tax leaders is the rapid growth in the development of digital strategies employed by tax authorities.

"European tax authorities are leading the way in areas such as real-time reporting and e-invoicing," said Chris Scott, Head of Tax for the KPMG EMA Region. "This is going to require heads of tax—and their organizations more generally—to reconsider the importance of technology to tax, to tackle data challenges and to adapt and develop their tax practices and processes for today's realities. They also have to rethink what good performance means in this new world. If you're traditionally judged by the timeliness of your tax return, this means little in relation to where the true risk might lie when data is sent in real time. Instead, the measures will become more about factors such as data integrity, coherence and completeness."

This observation seems to align with what CEOs indicated as the top performance measure for tax departments, namely:

• Tax function is aligned to support the corporate strategy (14 percent)
• Tax risks are managed appropriately in line with organizational values and objectives (13 percent)
• Results of tax jurisdiction audits are as expected (13 percent)
• Tax function effectively manages its department's resources (13 percent)
• Tax function generates cash savings for organization (13 percent)
• Tax compliance deadlines are met on schedule (12  percent)
• Business units are satisfied with tax services provided (12 percent)
• Accuracy of returns and avoidance of penalties (10 percent)

These findings suggest that CEOs are expecting strategic, broadly focused tax leadership, going beyond the traditional realm of compliance activities. In contrast, when tax leaders were asked to rank the same criteria above in terms of how they expect leadership would prioritize the tax department's performance measures, the clear frontrunners were around the effective management of tax risks (54 percent ranked this as highly important), and the accuracy of returns and avoidance of penalties (43 percent ranked this as highly important).

Using data driven insights

Document management systems are currently the most commonly used type of tax software. Almost a fifth (19 percent) of companies that now use it plan to change or enhance their current software, while a similar number (21 percent) of other companies plan to acquire document management software in the next 5 years. Compliance software, off-the-shelf provision systems and workflow tools are the next most commonly used software. However, there appears to be little enthusiasm to change tools or increase usage among current users of these technologies.

"Many tax leaders in the region today are better equipped to deliver more data-driven insights to their organizations than they ever have been in the past, but there is still more that can be done," said Melissa Geiger, Partner and Head of International Tax for KPMG in the UK. "They can go further by bringing their experience in evolving the tax function for real-time data collection to help other areas of the business do the same. This is one way tax professionals can take more of a leadership role in helping their organizations overcome the broader business challenges they face."

In the short term, tax leaders in Europe may continue to struggle to balance compliance imperatives with broader business priorities, including enhanced data analysis, effective reputational management and better risk mitigation. However, emerging trends suggest the transformational work that tax leaders are beginning to take on today, investing in technology and improved processes, fostering new skillsets and continuing to pursue a place for tax at the leadership table, could yield meaningful opportunities in the longer term. The result will be a more efficient, more engaged tax function—creating a richer experience for the modern tax professional and eliciting further trust from the organizations and broader societies that they serve.

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Background

About the KPMG Global Tax Department Benchmarking Survey

KPMG International's ongoing Global Tax Benchmarking initiative charts the evolution of leading tax departments and identifies operational benchmarks for high-performing tax teams. The ongoing study is the largest of its kind on a global scale. It has so far surveyed nearly 500 tax leaders from some of the world's largest multinational organizations. The European data cut and related report, which is the focus of this particular release, includes 190 tax leaders representing more than 15 different countries in the European region. The European report looks at responses from 190 tax leaders of organizations in 15 European countries across all major industries. Learn more at kpmg.com/taxbenchmarking.

About KPMG's Global CEO Outlook

Now in its fifth year, the KPMG Global CEO Outlook provides an in-depth three-year outlook from thousands of global executives on enterprise and economic growth. Each year the report builds upon answers from previous surveys to help ensure a consistent year-over-year view of the global economy. It also includes new and changing questions to capture CEOs' outlook on trending topics in the market.

The 2019 survey covers 1,300 CEOs in 11 key markets (Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, UK and US) and 11 key industry sectors (asset management, automotive, banking, consumer and retail, energy, infrastructure, insurance, life sciences, manufacturing, technology, and telecommunications).

The cuts of data presented in this press release are the responses of 880 CEOs in 18 countries in Europe (Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the UK).

The survey was conducted between 8 January and 20 February 2019. NOTE: some figures may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding. Learn more at kpmg.com/ceooutlook.

About the KPMG EMA Tax Summit

The KPMG EMA Tax Summit is an annual invitation-only event held in different locations across Europe, which brings together tax leaders from some of the largest and most influential organizations around the world with KPMG Tax & Legal professionals from across the KPMG network of member firms.

About KPMG

KPMG is a global network of professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. We operate in 153 countries and territories and have 207,000 people working in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"), a Swiss entity. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such.

For further information: Amy Diaz, KPMG International, amydiaz@kpmg.ca, +1 416 356 6930