Most tax department heads are afraid of using any type of automation solutions that their tax preparers cannot maintain. In other words, they are afraid of creating a “black box”.  The fact is that most tax preparers have a very limited understanding of MS Excel and technology in general. Therefore, this reality limits most tax departments’ automation options to the basics of Microsoft Excel.

A tax department will never be able to embrace technology to the fullest degree possible until they agree to give up control of their Excels and trust their professional IT partners who specialize in developing advanced automation solutions.

The term Tax Technology has been around for over a decade or more.  However, in most tax departments, a Tax Technology staff is a tax preparer who imports data to vendor applications and maintains user access. On the other hand, a true Tax Technology professional is an individual who has a strong IT background plus a basic understanding of the tax process. A good Tax Technology team member is an individual who can design and maintain advanced automation solutions like Alteryx, Power Query, Power BI, RPA, etc… and is a great teacher who can elevate the rest of the team’s understanding of technology along the way.

To be successful in incorporating technology into the tax process, tax department heads must be able to establish a trusting partnership with non-Tax IT-trained professionals.

Have a question about tax technology implementation? Contact Alex Fazelat, Tax Technology, LLC