Publish Date
Oct 11, 2018
A&M From The Inside Out
Tax planning and tax performance improvement efforts are more important than ever in light of policy and technology disruption.
Tax planning has never attracted so much controversy or been so critical to corporate transformation than now. Whether the issue is the increased reputational risk for companies that are not perceived to be paying their fair share, or the unfair competition posed by tax havens, or President Trump’s flagship program of tax reforms in the U.S., corporate taxation issues are enjoying a high profile. New technology has also made tax arrangements more transparent. Boards and tax departments are challenged with addressing all these changes simultaneously.
This disruption has layered additional complexity to the fundamental role of tax planning, which is to allocate assets and place people and knowledge in the most tax-efficient way possible in order to maximize capital. This creates countless tax planning and tax operational improvement opportunities for organizations.
“If you’re changing your operational model, you’re changing the way you do things from a tax perspective,” says Ernesto Perez, Managing Director and global leader of Alvarez & Marsal’s Taxand practice. “It’s a value component and an efficiency component of any transformation. If done in the right way, it can free up capital to achieve business goals. Furthermore, driven by the continuously evolving tax legislature, digitization, data analytics and process automation, internal tax organizations create ‘white space’ and open countless opportunities for value creation,” adds Perez.
