Tax Management Consulting for a Multinational Industrial Control Products Manufacturing Company |
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Abstract
This multinational industrial control products company wanted to automate their tax data collection processes and reduce their reliance on manual processes. Initially, it engaged Deloitte’s Tax Management Consulting (TMC) group to perform a tax data blueprinting project, which was to serve as the foundation for improving tax data management. Building upon this foundation, the TMC team continued to support the client through a series of projects that have subsequently reengineered and automated the company’s management of tax data and standardized its approach across their five disparate business units.
The Challenge
As the tax department of this industrial control products manufacturer considered its tax technology requirements for the future, executives recognized a pressing need to decrease reliance on manual data collection processes, including the use of spreadsheets for gathering, maintaining, and transferring tax data. These manual processes were inefficient and created risk for the organization. At the same time, tax function leaders wanted to standardize data collection processes among the company’s five business units and increase the usage of data within the company’s recently implemented financial performance management system.
How We Helped
Initially, the client talked with our Deloitte TMC team about ways to use the company’s performance management system to improve tax data management. From these discussions, our team completed a tax data blueprinting project.
Over the ensuing 18 months, we completed the additional steps necessary to help the client reengineer its tax data collection processes from the ground up and align them with the company’s performance management and tax software systems. These steps included:
- Gathering tax data requirements
- Conducting a feasibility study related to capabilities of the company’s performance management system
- Analyzing current data collection processes
- Assisting in the design of new tax data management processes
- Working with the client’s tax department to redesign the company’s tax software point solution
- Collaborating with the client’s internal developers in their design and building of a standardized web-based tax data collection tool that is integrated with the performance management and tax software systems
- Analyzing the new data collection tool and processes
- Integrating the client’s revised data collection process with the tax compliance software
Why Deloitte? The client selected Deloitte’s TMC group due to our experience in helping global enterprises standardize and automate tax data management. Strong relationships in other parts of the tax function opened the door for this relationship, but our team’s responsiveness and its willingness to address tax data management needs one step at a time made Deloitte’s TMC group the company’s choice for seeing this process through to completion.
Solution
At the outset, the company lacked a clear approach for achieving its tax data management goals, including decreasing reliance on manual processes. Working with Deloitte’s TMC team to reengineer their tax data collection, the company has improved transparency of tax information and increased efficiency by standardizing processes and work papers among its business units and integrating data collection with its financial management and tax software solutions. By helping to reduce manual activities and increasing automation, the company also has reduced the risks of data errors and shortened work cycles, cutting approximately one month from its data collection timeline. This effort has enabled the client to decrease its reliance on outside service providers, resulting in a direct cost benefit. Perhaps even more significantly, the hours saved by eliminating manual work has enabled the company to redirect some of their tax professionals to higher-value activities.
To learn more about Deloitte’s approach to tax data management, contact your Deloitte adviser or email us at tmc@deloitte.com. For additional resources, visit www.deloitte.com/us/movetaxforward.
As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte Tax LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.
