Taking Charge of Change: Three Essential Principles

Turning the global digital revolution to your advantage

The days when tax careers had a good degree of certainty and felt relatively safe are receding in the rear view mirror. Now, it frequently feels less comfortable as dramatic change intervenes, particularly of the digital kind. Tax professionals are wondering what the future holds, and concern levels are rising.

Yet, change is a double-edged sword. If approached correctly, it can be a good thing, but how do you know which side of the fence you fall on? Test yourself against these three principles:

Principle #1 – Do you have complete visibility into digitalized tax?

If responsibility for tax in the systems has been left to other groups or outsourced, then your visibility is minimal. A classic symptom of this is constant complaints about upstream, data, vendors, or all of the above.

Principle #2 – Are you in control of the systems from a tax perspective?

If you find yourself scrabbling for answers each time there is an issue, then you are not in control. You are also not in control if you lack an overall view or vision, and you feel uneasy about what you might not be seeing in the systems.

Principle #3 – Are you, your team, and your career future-proofed?

If you quietly fear what might happen next, or don’t like the look of the general direction of travel, then you are not future-proofed. It’s vital going forward that you have a good level of confidence in your ability to handle anything thrown at you, especially if it’s from the technology, digitalization, and transformation arenas.

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For 20+ years, the last seven as PawPaw Taxology, we have examined, stretched, pulled and probed these critical questions, and we very much appreciate those of you who have been on this journey with us. However, that time has come to an end.

Coming Soon: A Change You Won’t Want To Miss

The discover & explore phase is over, and 2022 is the year taxology comes of age!

Shortly, you will see us transition to an improved and more complete taxological space. There will be a new look & feel, and better ways of partnering with our valued community to help them take advantage of the many changes happening in tax, no matter how dramatic.

We will keep our much-loved persona of insightful innovation, but expand & extend it with imaginative, yet effective ways to help you navigate real-world, digital-era problems, projects, and planning. This includes meaningful journeys of change that benefit all concerned.

Our relaunch is just days away. Watch this space!

PS. We will be retiring our company name even though it means a lot to us, rooted as it is in our founders, Geoff Peck & Bill Wilson, and their love of protecting African wildlife (PawPaw). The love will remain, but the company will reflect a fresh new direction. It’s time!

Take no action! You’re already along for the ride!

2021: The Tax Transformation Manifesto

The digital storm is here. New values lead to a better response.

This is now getting serious. It’s more obvious than ever. As the impact of digitalization floods in from all sides, tax keeps coming up short. The current issue of CFO.com reports that Chaos Reigns in Corporate Tax Departments. It must surely be time to fully acknowledge that what is needed is meaningful change to a far greater extent than is typical today.

This is the exact topic covered by taxology and has been for the last six years. Like all good innovation, taxology evolves over time as we continue to uncover better ways of adapting to technology and digitally enabling the tax function. Now that includes simple, practical, yet basic steps to break the impasse, and it starts with a declaration of principles and policy.

The Taxology Manifesto

Through this work we have come to understand the value of:

Collaboration and workshops over presentations and project plans

Vision and user stories over requirements and IT

Data and data literacy over business process automation

Continuous innovation over corporate structure

That is, while there is value in the items on the right,
the items on the left are of far greater value in this space
.

Taxology also incorporates technical excellence, people, process, & technology, and more besides, but the manifesto specifically addresses the new ways of working that must underpin any such shift. We learned that instigating such change organically is too limited, and results are not forthcoming. Extra impetus is required for recalibration and a rethink.

So, check out Smart Tax Technology and join the ten new persons who have committed to the certification program in the last two weeks alone. Let us be of service to you as we are to them at this critical point in time for tax.

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