A new report from the Middle East division of global business consultancy PwC identified six areas that tax departments must prioritize in the coming year. Automation, and the upskilling required to manage it figured prominently.
The report said new data analytics and extraction tools, including RPA, will enable automation of tax-centric tasks such as VAT exception testing, invoice processing, and fulfilling reporting requirements. And, tax departments that embrace “small automation” will realize cost savings at a relatively low cost for the software.
“Data is at the heart of tax and business strategic decision making,” said Darcy White, tax leader for PwC’s office based in Oman. “The tax and shadow tax function and professional of the future will have to be more data-savvy. There is a fantastic opportunity to further leverage data analytics and automation within tax functions for greater contributions to the bottom line and we are so excited to be bringing these opportunities to our clients right now.”