The Most Current Developments in Information Systems and the Example of Digital Platforms

As expected, the digitalization of the economy and society has a major impact on the taxes of companies and on the tax department. There is no development in information and communication technology that can go unnoticed from the tax department's perspective. The digitalization of a business model can be of great importance, for example, when a digital platform is built. Putting all the facets described in this Chapter together, it is easy to see that the operational complexity for tax departments is already very high and will tend to increase further. International and digital business models meet new legal regulations and audit mechanics. At the same time, tax departments can deliver high quality financial data sets that can be used by business leaders to evaluate and steer new (digital) business models. The tax department should, therefore, increasingly be seen as a fundamental building block of a business . In interaction with other business units, external tax consultancies, technology providers and tax authorities, a new tax ecosystem is emerging, which requires new forms of internal and external collaboration. The increasing compliance requirements for companies, especially in the tax area, make it necessary to deal intensively with tax consequences before investing in a new business model. The digitalization of the tax department is progressing. New applications for the tax department are coming onto the market, new developments in information and communication technology are being used to digitalize processes in the tax department and to increase the level of automation. Data analytics; that is, the evaluation of large data sets using statistical methods and artificial intelligence, will become very important. It should always be clear that not only will companies digitalize their tax processes, but also the tax authorities will exploit all the potential of digitalization. A statement by former American President John F. Kennedy: ‘A rising tide lifts all boats’ can be applied to digitalization. Companies and government authorities will use and benefit from the potentials of digitalization.