INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Over 78% respondents believe they are not adequately prepared for the new avatar of tax functionMumbai: With the tax function evolving at a
Over 78 per cent respondents believe they are not adequately prepared for the new avatar of tax function and consider that there is a need
for tax functions to better leverage people, process and technology to deal with the external environment and add value to business,"
according to the EY Tax Survey 2018 report.The EY Tax Survey 2018 is based on views from the leading CFOs, tax leaders and senior executives
across 15 sectors and industries in India including public and private organisations as well as global corporations.The survey further
revealed that for tax to be seen as a strategic function, 44 per cent respondents felt that the ability to add value to business through
insights is the biggest challenge, with timely involvement of tax in business decision-making and agility.Over 90 per cent the respondents
believed that core competencies of the professionals will move from tax and technical skills to process and technological skills over the
next three years, it said.In order to do this it is imperative for the organisations to hire the right mix of talent equally who can manage
process and leverage technology to improve consistency, quality and efficiency, it added.This topic becomes even more relevant from an India
perspective owing to the large scale tax reforms powered by technology (more specifically GST) that have been and continue to be undertaken
by the government, it said."This survey highlights the increasing strategic importance of the tax function in light of the tax reforms we
are currently experiencing
However, the challenges are multi-fold from the ability of tax as a function to show business value through insights to the evolving nature
of the tax professional, organisations and leaders need to do a lot more in order for it to be seen as a truly strategic function," said
Garima Pande, partner and national leader, business tax services, EY India.Additionally, she said, with the increasing demand for
transparency across board, the tax function needs to not only be agile, but also invest in technologies and tools to keep pace with the fast
pace business environment.While access to high quality talent is vital, the evolving nature of tax function has necessitated organisations
to revisit resourcing in terms of technology and overall investments as well, it said.About 89 per cent of the respondents believed that the
increasing importance of ensuring transparency in business has increased the workload on the tax function, it said.In fact 60 per cent of
the respondents said their organisations are not investing enough time and money in technology to manage its reputational and tax risk
