Today’s tax leaders, in Canada and globally, face unprecedented regulatory change and complexity – from domestic tax reforms, the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan, through to heightened scrutiny on multinational reporting and more.

In this dynamic and rapidly changing environment, organizations must adapt to address the shift towards global transparency, increased audit activity, direct access of data by revenue authorities, and increased information sharing across jurisdictions.

Technology and innovation can be the difference between a tax department that is on the defensive, one that is keeping pace, and one that is proactively building a proud tax narrative inside and outside of their organization.

Despite this, in KPMG’s recent Global Tax Benchmarking Survey, only 14% of tax leaders surveyed expected to see a significant increase in tax technology investment in the next 5 years, with Canadian tax departments less likely than their global counterparts to take advantage of the efficiencies and value that investments in tax technology can bring.

There is therefore a massive untapped opportunity for Canadian tax functions to leverage data and technology to meet these new challenges as well as ever-tougher mandates to do more with less.

And with tax authorities increasing the scope of information requests and moving more-and-more toward real-time demand for data, there has never been a better time for organizations to use tax technology to take control over their tax data and the story behind it.

• Where does tax technology fit into your overall tax strategy?
• Do you have dedicated tax technology resources on your team?
• How do you stay on top of new technologies and trends in tax and tax governance?
• What are the key factors you use to make the business case for an investment in tax technology?