How to avoid them and beseech virtues instead!
COVID-19 has been a watershed for technology and so it will prove to be for the digitalization of tax. Until now, the standard approach to IT in tax was tolerated despite being not good enough, cheap enough, or quick enough to deliver. That ended when tax was swept over the edge of the digital divide during the pandemic along with many others walks of life such as ways of working and shopping habits.
Yet today, the very notion of “7 Deadly Sins in Tax Technology” can still ring hollow because tax professionals are not held fully accountable for the digital metamorphosis engulfing their domain, but soon technology will be the business and ‘data’ will be the lifeblood in that domain. When that day arrives, many of today’s tax-tech norms will suddenly become the sins of the past. Here is our pick for the top ‘seven’:
- Treating digital technologies as not core to tax
- Allowing responsibility for tax technology to reside outside of tax
- Permitting lower standards for technology than those for tax itself
- Putting business process before ‘data’ in a tax digitalization project
- Promoting 100% automation as the primary objective
- Placing project management ahead of digital skills in delivering a project
- Having little or no “connection” or touch ‘n’ feel for technology.
We believe that hidden in the sins of tomorrow are the essentials of digital transformation today. Upskilling for technology awareness & competency in the specific area of tax will be key at all levels, so much so that we believe without it, tax professionals will be unable to fully succeed in the fundamentally altered landscape underpinning their careers post-pandemic.
Note that this challenge is not solved by tax professionals learning IT. The secret is for them to gain an understanding of technology & transformation, what it means, what it can and cannot do for tax, and how to get the best out of it while avoiding the pitfalls. We call it tax technology awareness training, or ‘taxology’.
We have been developing and honing this material for five years, and the passionate band of newly-armed tax professionals and certified taxologists continues to grow. Shortly, our flagship training program will be completely updated and available via e-learning, and the early bird offer of lifetime membership and 1-to-1 coaching will come to an end.
Learn more today about the Smart Tax Technology certification program and contact us to speak to one of our successful students. Start today, and give your career the gift of being “in tune” with technology and the vision to navigate with confidence the choppy digital waters of modern tax.
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