Tax reporting and strategy

Working with our clients to manage risks, enhance controls and deliver value through their tax operating model.

Having an appropriate strategy for tax supported by a robust risk management framework is more important than ever.

We can work with you to:

• review your tax risk level by leveraging our tools
• review whether your tax risk management remains fit for purpose
• ensure an appropriate tax risk framework is in place to ensure the business delivers on what it has set out in the strategy
• ensure the business has a tax operating model that enables it to effectively deliver tax.

We can help draft new policy documents or review your existing ones, and we can assess the effectiveness of your company’s controls over tax globally and monitor control effectiveness on an ongoing basis.

We can also help ensure you have the right operating model to deliver the strategy, including helping you identify and put in place the appropriate people, process, controls and technology to help you deal with the impact of finance transformation change.

Automating your tax management to meet all business and tax needs.

It is important that companies have a tax management process which is capable of meeting all their obligations.

In our experience, an automated tax management process can deliver standardised, efficient, tax outcomes and enhances the transparency of tax and inter-company finance processes.  We can help you meet your own goals: from transformational projects through to short term remedies.

We can work with you to:

• design/redesign your tax process and improve management information and insight, and to help achieve common finance and tax goals
• create a workflow solution that’s easy to use , and provide task and role features that can be used to effectively manage resources
• ensure the right systems, processes and data are flowing in and out of the business, and the right tools and controls are in place to support it.

The demands on today’s tax departments continue to increase. Globalisation, regulatory changes, shorter business cycles, increased scrutiny, and heightened customer expectations mean that companies need to become more agile to respond to market changes swiftly. However, organisations cannot make informed business decisions if they are struggling to locate, validate, and manipulate tax data.

Leading companies are starting to think differently about how they leverage data. They’re realising that data integration and tax-sensitising data can make the greatest positive impact on tax. For example, successfully tax sensitising and integrating data from multiple systems, applications, and/or spreadsheets into a common solution for the tax function can help reduce significant time, enabling tax to refocus its efforts on analysis, forecasting, and other high-priority activities.

We can work with you to:

• effectively manage information to meet regulatory requirements and make informed strategic decisions
• enable end-to-end integration of provision and compliance data (e.g., general ledger (GL) trial balances/JE detail, consolidated balances, Excel data, automated mapping into tax provision/compliance software)
• gain increased visibility into your China and global tax operations, including: 
  • self-service reporting (e.g., standard and ad-hoc tax reporting and analysis)
  • automated reconciliation reporting (e.g., net book income reconciliation, fixed asset ledger/sub-ledger reconciliation)
  • web-enabled (tax package) data collection integrated with your overall tax data management solution
  • tax planning, scenario forecasting, and predictive analytics.

Financial restatements, coupled with increased regulatory scrutiny of tax accounts and related tax disclosures, have elevated the focus on tax accounting - and exposed significant problems in many companies.

Keeping track of tax law changes around the world has become a growing challenge for multinationals, many of whom are rapidly expanding their geographic footprint at a time when jurisdictional tax laws are undergoing nearly constant change. Naturally, changes in tax law have an impact on tax planning, as well as tax return preparation and, ultimately, tax cash flows. Those consequences, however, are often preceded by the impact of such changes on company financial reporting.

Meanwhile, the emergence of international shared services and GAAP convergence is putting additional strain on an already resource-constrained tax function. We can help bring greater confidence in your tax reporting, meaning fewer quarter-end and year-end surprises.

We can work with you to reduce risk and achieve better control over your tax accounting function through improved and more efficient processes. Our team of dedicated technical specialists around the globe provide guidance, and best practices, on a range of tax accounting issues, including:

• tax provision outsourcing and support
• accounting for uncertain tax positions (including FIN 48) assessments
• GAAP conversion modelling to determine the tax and accounting impact of moving to a different GAAP
• other specialised tax accounting services, including deferred tax analyses and tax basis balance sheet assistance
• tax accounting technical assistance and support, including customised training.

Compliance across all taxes, statutory accounting and tax reporting is becoming increasingly complex. Companies are struggling to do more with less while driving value out of their tax and finance functions. The centralisation of finance and accounting functions presents additional challenges when dealing with complex local rules, disparate technologies, and manual processes during the compliance cycle. This results in a greater risk of compliance failures and minimal time for strategic forecasting or planning.

Many companies are rethinking their approach to domestic and global compliance and reporting by taking a closer look at their technology, processes, resources, and service providers. Leading tax functions are using co-sourcing/outsourcing as a critical component of tax function strategy, and as a means to better align tax function investments and use of talent with organisational goals.

We are using our experience of providing cross-border tax compliance services to deliver both domestic and global multi-tax compliance services for our clients.

We can work with you to:

• coordinate all the tax compliance activities (e.g. direct and indirect taxes, tax accounting, preparation of statutory financial statements and country by country reporting) for your subsidiaries, with diverse accounting practices, legislative environments and business customs, seamlessly and cost-effectively.

We take an integrated, global approach to the variety of local compliance services:

• local country specialist teams form the backbone of our service offering, providing experienced resources to help with the compliance needs today, support in future audits, and practical knowledge of current and emerging regulatory requirements
• Integrated Global Compliance Services (IGCS) is our web-based portal designed to collaborate with you around the world, including effective exchange of data sources, transparent review of deliverables, and real-time access to status, workflow, deliverables, and critical information
• our client relationship managers deliver centralized coordination and communication
• our experience and scalability allows us to customize and adapt our delivery model to align with your broader business goals
• our technology based tools to provide tax compliance support, including Apex+ CIT, Apex+ VAT, etc.

The spotlight is firmly fixed on the amount of tax that businesses pay, so it’s more important than ever that you’re clear about your tax transparency and communications.

But tax has become a reputational issue. And increasingly external groups such as customers, media and campaign groups are showing an interest in a company’s tax strategy and total tax contribution. Staffs are seeking transparency around their employer’s behaviour.  And so external relations departments need to understand the key themes around tax behaviours and tax departments must formulate robust messages to be built into communications plans. Tax reputation is a key business issue.

We can work with you to:

• advise the appropriateness of your business and tax information to be disclosed to any external parties
• reduce risk and achieve better control over your information disclosure and transparency
• design/redesign your existing tax processes, embed controls, etc., that can address complex global and local tax disclosure needs.