Smoothing the way for calmer tax filings.

• Author: Lapetina, Tim
• Position: Tax

Many tax executives likely have blocked from memory the angst and turmoil they experienced at the beginning of the year. The culprits: year-end and first-quarter financial close. But, instead of trying to forget, many may benefit from asking, "How can we improve our internal tax accounting processes so that ! we can avoid that level of stress?"

As organizations increase in size and broaden their focus to an international playing field, their tax executives face more challenges around the prevalence (or lack) of international resources skilled in ASC-740, accountability and oversight of the global tax accounting function, inefficient data collection and collaboration with foreign affiliates and inadequate cooperation with accounting.

In addition, increased auditor scrutiny in a post-Sarbanes-Oxley environment, decreasing resources and shortened close cycles place significant pressure on tax functions seeking to reinforce internal controls and accuracy, and recognize that tax executives no longer can afford to rely on "the way we have always done it" and the associated risks.

The solution? Implement a risk-based process by reprioritizing tasks, moving some deadlines to less stressful periods and streamlining the process through the effective use of technology/automation.

Implementing a sustainable, riskbased process requires a thoughtful approach that starts with a holistic look at current-state processes to identify areas that need improvement. This type of assessment positions a tax executive to prioritize immediate needs to address this year, and then phase in next steps over the longer term.

Thus, tax functions struggling to tighten their budgets can start with small steps that can make a big difference. Others might be ready to revamp their entire process.

Regardless of scale, an effective implementation plan doesn't have a start-and-stop date. It calls for continuous improvement. Tax executives will need to periodically examine their progress and continually seek ways to develop more efficient processes and establish more effective controls.

A risk-based process that takes advantage of technology/automation will bring transparency and add visibility to the underlying tax accounting calculations and related footnote disclosures. It will eliminate year-end scrambling. It will help optimize the use of an organization's most talented resources.

Further, it will enable highperforming members in the tax function to spend more time reviewing and analyzing as opposed to "getting in the weeds" with respect to validating underlying financial information and preparing tax provision calculations.

But timing is critical to ensure consistency and accuracy through out the year. Now is the time to gather the decision-makers andchart a proper course.

Global Reach Increases Complexity

As organizations have expanded their global.reach; interim and year-end tax accounting processes. have become more complex. Companies are facing...