Whenever in Germany the weather starts to improve, the temperature remains above zero degrees (celsius) for longer periods of time and nature slowly awakens from its slumber, after a few dark, cold and wet months that seems too long and too cold almost every year, it makes me feel like awakening myself. Getting up seems easier, the sun lightens up the mood, it just feels better all around. Unfortunately, not everybody starts his or her day with the same enthusiasm in this time. For some people it is because it is the time when their allergies start acting up. For many others, with spring, there's another beast awakening - a terrifying one that had kept looming in the shadows for almost the entire year.
It is tax time.
Yes, for many people, tax is a a very frightening thing, and it is so for many reasons. Studies show, that
especially the younger generations fear filing taxes. About 80% of them are frightened of making mistakes that might lead to legal complications.
Personally, I know this fear - tax declarations are among the only documents I triple and quadruple-check and really make sure I get every number right. But the fact of the matter is that what we have to endure, although it seems very complicated, is quite easy in comparison to what tax managers of modern tax departments have to cope with. Of course, usually they are highly trained professionals, but their world is much more complicated since in addition to tax being a complex topic to begin with, they are dealing with constant changes, newly introduced regulations and a digital arms race that tax authorities have begun to close their tax gaps.
In the last two years alone, tax authorities and governments have become much more tech-savvy to improve their abilities to detect tax evasion attempts. They rely much more on solutions to look deeper into the transactional details of enterprises' data to find out whether they are compliant. And they have good reason to act this way since even though many countries suffer from large fiscal deficits,
they also lose massive amounts of money in uncolleted tax. So these days they constantly introduce new regulations on electronic invoicing and the regulations already introduced are subject to constant changes, in sum creating an exponential rise in regulation changes that make tax manager's life much more stressful. Why stressful? Because those changes inherit a lot of risk - risk of competitive disadvantages, monetary losses in fines, or even legal action. And these do affect them on a personal level. As if that wasn't enough - since many enterprises have large, heterogeneous landscapes, they struggle to keep up and have the right data in the right place at the right time to create the right reports - and send them to authorities punctually.
Recently, SAP decided to put a stop to this and try to free tax managers from that burden.
With
SAP Solutions for global tax management, we offer an end-to-end tax solution that enables tax calculation, determination, verification and reporting from a single source of truth, making life for tax managers much easier again.
And since the springtime does not only mean that it is tax time but also that SAPPHIRE NOW is just around the corner, be sure to leverage this great opportunity to learn about our new tax portfolio first hand!
Here is a number of sessions that are absolutely worth checking out!
Ensure Compliance in Indirect Tax Management on a Global Scale
[BA59077, Vishal Verma // 6/7, 2:00 p.m. – 2:20 p.m. // Business Applications Topic Area 1]
Boost Tax Compliance, Reduce Cost, and Avoid Audits with AI Technology
[BA59112, Saye Arumugam // 6/6, 1:00 p.m. – 1:20 p.m. // Business Applications Topic Area 1]
Discover New Ways to Manage Indirect Tax Consistently and Cost-Effectively
[BA59080, Vishal Verma // 6/5, 2:00 p.m. – 2:40 p.m. // Business Applications Topic Area 1]
Intelligent Cost Control and Tax
[BA59070]
Don't miss these great sessions and
learn about what SAP has to offer in the space of tax!
In conclusion - we might not have something in store against fear of taxes in private households, neither can we do anything against allergies at this time. But at least tax managers have a lot to look forward to, this spring. Despite the allergies.
If you are not yet registered for SAPPHIRE
, register now!
