Features

Congress Pivots From Health Care to Tax Reform
Ultimate outcome on taxes in 2017 still up in the air

Benjamin Franklin is frequently credited with saying that there’s nothing certain in life except death and taxes. I would suggest an addendum to this adage for 2017: another certainty is the steady drumbeat of news stories claiming that tax reform is imperative and imminent. Years of hearings, commissions, white papers,… Read more »

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Section 199 and Cloud Software: Clearing the Fog
Are you up-to-date on current Treasury regs?

The domestic production activity deduction under Section 199 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (hereinafter “Section 199”), provides a deduction equal to nine percent of the lesser of taxable income or income attributable to certain qualified production activities. For the 2016 fiscal year, this deduction was estimated… Read more »

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Practical Questions for Multinationals in an MLI World
MLI moves to implementation with open issues and challenges

Now that the multilateral instrument (MLI)1 coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has been signed by over seventy jurisdictions,2 the new international tax agreement has moved to the implementation phase, with open issues and challenges ahead. The practical outgrowth of the OECD’s project to address base… Read more »

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Introducing VAT in the Gulf States
Development affects not only domestic supplies of goods and services but also purchases made from unestablished suppliers

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which comprises the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait, has decided that its member countries will implement a value-added tax (VAT) system by 2018. This decision was adopted in the context of a dramatic drop in recent years in the oil… Read more »

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Your Tax Data Is Ripe for Artificial Intelligence. Are You Prepared?
AI is still evolving, but machine learning is already here

Entrepreneur and Tesla cofounder Elon Musk recently sparked controversy when he labeled artificial intelligence (AI) the “biggest existential threat” to humanity. On the flip side, according to Sandhya Venkatachalam of Centerview Capital Technology, AI can be used to fundamentally rethink how we solve the world’s problems and has the potential… Read more »

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Best Practices in Tax Compliance Outsourcing
Start the journey with a well-designed RFP

Tax compliance isn’t for the faint of heart these days. Proper execution can directly affect cash flow, the defensibility of tax return positions, risk management, and ultimately the public’s perception of your company as a responsible taxpayer. In the face of these concerns, as well as ever-changing tax laws and… Read more »

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Bots, Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning
Yes, these will impact your tax practice, but when and how much are still unclear

Tax professionals in all industries run into a common problem: the constant confrontation with rapidly changing technology that is camouflaged by overly complicated terminology, with few people explaining things in language that laypeople can understand. Such is the problem when you start a conversation on, say, robotic process automation or… Read more »

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The Internet, ‘Fake News,’ and Tax Research
Yes, they really do affect your bottom line

Before the days of the internet, tax research was conducted by tax professionals with access to information not readily available to the general public and followed high editorial standards. Corporate tax executives might have challenged the conclusions of the research, but they did not have to think twice about the… Read more »

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How Adobe Streamlined Tax to Scale Its Business
Dramatic shift in online purchasing has ripple effect

Some of the statistics about consumption in the United States are truly jarring. There are more than three shopping centers for every high school, according to industry data and the Department of Education. For each person, forty-eight square feet of retail capacity exists, CNBC reported earlier this year. The average… Read more »

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Playbook for a Successful Tax Technology Solution
Key to success: Engage tax technology and IT resources early and ensure continued involvement

The business and tax environments are changing rapidly, significantly affecting how corporate tax functions leverage technology, engage with their information technology (IT) departments, and execute technology projects. To adapt to challenging times, tax needs to reevaluate how it exploits data and technology and reconsider the skill sets needed to transform… Read more »

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