Ninety-two percent of corporate tax professionals consider data management to be a primary goal for improving the tax process, according to a new survey.
The survey, by corporate tax software developer Vertex, found that 74 percent of the 340 corporate tax, information technology and finance professionals polled listed one of their goals as increasing the time available to review tax data. Seventy-two percent said they would like to improve the quality of life for tax professionals. In addition, 76 percent agreed that improving the integrity of data should be a goal of tax process improvement.
“These individuals face not only increased time spent gathering the financial data required for tax processes, but also barriers like data quality and complexity, and communication issues with the finance department,” said Vertex tax data management director David Deputy. “Based on the results of this survey, it’s clear that these data management issues are having a direct effect on these professionals’ quality of life.”
The survey revealed that increased workload and complexity, and planning opportunities, are the primary drivers of change as tax departments rethink their processes and consider new approaches and solutions. When asked what was driving them to improve the tax process, 56 percent of the respondents said it was the increasing workload of the tax department, 47 percent agreed that increasing business complexity was the reason, and 38 percent cited a need for increased tax planning as the cause.
