By: Roberto Mendoza, Tax and Legal Lead Partner of the Northeast Business Unit and Lead Partner of KPMG Mexico’s Tax Transition Practice
Currently, when talking about technology within the tax process, concepts such as automation, cloud, enterprise resource planning (ERP), Machines, among others. However, for the generations born thirty years ago, adapting to these new norms, understanding their applicability and, above all, deciding how to get the most out of them, is more complex.
Undoubtedly, the area is evolving, but even if they promote “advanced” inspection systems that use electronic accounting and digital invoicing in Latin America, there are still companies with a certain lag in raising awareness of the relevance of the operation, and therefore, there is a clear lack of investment in scalable technologies that take them to another level. .
Likewise, there are trends like today chatbots And generative artificial intelligence (GAI) will be more attractive and key to the operation in the short term; However, most groups in the region continue to use traditional instruments, which may mean we are lagging behind, although we realize this will soon change.
Even as great technological advances continue to evolve, we are far from having an application that calculates Income Tax (ISR) with one button and determines Value Added Tax (VAT) with another.
Because of the above, it is important to know how to distinguish between different types of technologies and how to adapt them to the needs of the organization, mainly to ensure clarity in the area’s operational processes and thus make measurable decisions. , that is, they are stable solutions because they are always future-oriented.
Unfortunately, this rarely happens. An example of this is where companies have huge efforts in digital transformation projects that ignore the important role that the tax function plays in the process. Likewise, there may be plans to change the sector, but no one on the team has sufficient risk sensitivity and appropriate emphasis is not placed on the area.
Fortunately, awareness is growing Top of mind To build the profile of the leaders and the board, of the business groups about engaging in the process and investing in the financial sector. Programs are being implemented in universities to start including programming languages and various data analytics courses in the study programs, which will help develop a better future for the area.
In conclusion, we need not fear technology within the financial process as it is empowered to complement us and not compete with us.
