Rob Skinner is joined by Paul Guyer, Vice President and General Manager - Europe at Vertex and Harry Porter, Tax Technology Practice Business Lead at Innovate Tax.

The conversation explores the evolving landscape of indirect tax, the pressures driving transformation, and the role of technology in shaping tax teams. It highlights the importance of collaboration, the impact of ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) in Europe, and the future outlook as they navigate these changes.

It also emphasises the importance of adapting to new technologies, the need for tax teams to secure a seat at the table during transformation projects, and the critical role of skills and data analysis in navigating these changes; alongside the challenges and opportunities posed by ERP transitions and the need to embrace agility and collaboration.

Key takeaways:

• More than half of tax professionals are going through transformation processes in response to the evolution of digital technology and cross-border payments. This means collaboration between tax and other departments is increasing, and technology is reshaping industry roles.

• As tax teams go through transformation, they need to develop relationships across their businesses to influence the outcome of these projects, and build on their data analysis skills to make sense of the information collected. AI can and will augment these activities, but like many other industries, it will require close human oversight.

• The modernisation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems poses challenges for tax teams, but it also presents an opportunity to clean up the technical debt of older systems and implement automation to increase control and efficiency.

Timestamps:

12:13 - Collaboration and maturity in tax teams

19:55 - The European landscape and ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age)

32:54 - ERP shifts and tax transformation; cleaning up technical debt.

41:31 - Skills and digital transformation in tax

43:57 - AI and human collaboration in tax

45:54 - Influencing skills in tax teams; data analysis and interpretation.

52:56 - Future-proofing tax functions; securing a seat at the table.

57:05 - Key takeaways for tax professionals.

Episode links

Paul Guyer - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pguyer/

Harry Porter - https://www.linkedin.com/in/harry-porter-21711237/

Find out more about Vertex Inc here.

The podcast is edited by Suzi Dale at Story Publishing.

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