In the report, Global tax transparency and risk management – a part of the 'Tax Function of the Future' series – PwC revealed its vision for the future tax professional, highlighting new skills that the firm expects will be vital to the role.
“A successful tax professional of the future will be highly proficient in data analysis, statistics, and technology, as well as process management and change management,” the report said.
In addition, to complement the expansion of technology within organisations, PwC believes that specialists skilled in tax IT, data and project management will be incorporated into businesses to “champion” tax technology and transformation strategies.
PwC also stated that compliance work will continue to distance itself from the core of the organisation, with much of it likely to be handled by a specialist third party.
“Most global tax preparatory compliance and reporting activities, including data collection and reconciliations, will be performed with the company’s shared service centre or will be co-sourced with a third party,” the report said.
The presence of real-time collaboration tools will result in automated workflow, document management, calendaring and internal controls, according to PwC.
Spreadsheets and “traditional tax technology solutions” will be replaced with what PwC describes as “enterprise-wide financial systems”, a vast majority of which will rely on data analysis to assist in risk detection, opportunity identification, as well as projections.
“Tax functions should focus on the broader benefits of responding to new challenges by [their] evolving into a more strategic contributor to the business. It’s an opportunity to further enhance the tax function’s stature within the organisation by using technology, information, and capacity for analytics to contribute to the overall corporate vision and business strategy,” the report concluded.
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