Filing deadline is... this week

I hear frequently that tax teams are under stress due to the non-negotiable compliance deadlines. This is obviously within expectations, given the high amount of global tax obligations that multinationals are facing. What surprises me is that despite the fact that external advisors are involved this deadline anxiety remains present. Many teams work with a broad range of advisors. And let’s be honest, not all advisors are equally proactive. The in-house tax team will need to bite the bullet when the time pressure mounts.

Strictly speaking you would expect that deadline madness is easy to avoid. First, you just list all the compliance obligations you are exposed to in the different countries (“WHAT”). You identify the external deadlines for the filings, payments, reportings, … (“WHEN”) Subsequently, you identify the stakeholders that are required for making it happen (“WHO”). Typically a blend of local finance colleagues and external advisors will collaborate in the compliance process. Finally, you map the compliance practicalities including the data requirements for all the obligations (“HOW”).

Now you have WHAT, WHEN, WHO and HOW. Easy-peasy right, you put it all together in a process, do some rigorous backplanning, and bye bye deadline frenzy 👋👋. Why not use a beautiful spreadsheet for it! Welcome good life, welcome work-life balance, welcome restful dreams…

You hear me coming. It is time to burst the bubble. The crux lies in operationalizing the processes. Yes, it is easy to make beautiful blueprints. But how are you going to ensure all process steps are executed, by the different stakeholders, at the right moment in time, with the required quality levels? Good luck if you are doing it on the back of a static, passive spreadsheet… And so it happens that you get an unpleasant call from your advisor telling you that the filing deadline is this week…

There is only one way forward. There is only one future-proof solution to this. It will allow you to further scale your tax function with the rest of the business. You will have repeatable and predictable ways of working. It will give you rest and head space to focus on business support or strategic stuff. I am talking about ⚡️workflow engines⚡️. Explore them! You won’t regret it!