Business Enquirer Issue 126 | Mazars | June 2024

TAX COMPLEXITY SOARS: FIRM’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TO NAVIGATE THE FUTURE

TAX COMPLEXITY SOARS: FIRM’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TO NAVIGATE THE FUTURE

Today’s tax systems pose significant challenges for businesses. The complexities of domestic and international rules mean organisations need clear, informed, and considered guidance.

In fact, two-thirds of UK business taxes were introduced in the past decade, research shows.

The cost of those new taxes to businesses jumped to £13.1bn in the last year, up 27% from £10.3bn in 2022/23.

“The number of new business taxes that have been introduced show how the UK’s tax regime is becoming increasingly complex for multinational businesses to navigate,” stated Thomson Reuters1 in a recent press release.

Additionally, ‘Regulatory compliance’ has become a top five priority for a quarter of C-suite leaders, according to the 2024 Future of Professionals C-Suite Survey by Thomson Reuters.

The report shows that 44% also ranked digital transformation as their highest priority in the next 18 months.

If that reflects your thoughts on business tax and financial assurance, look no further than leading international audit, tax and advisory firm, Mazars.

Founded in France in 1945 by its namesake Robert Mazars, and now present in over 100 countries, Mazars is a leading international audit, tax and advisory firm.

Helping the business to become international experts in its fields is a global, connected partnership of over 33,000 professionals, providing a seamlessly integrated team across borders, services and sectors.

But why choose Mazars to support your business?

A business steeped in over 70 years of experience, whilst auditing has been at the core of its expertise, it is complemented by a balanced portfolio of consulting and financial advisory, as well as tax, compliance and legal services.

“Crucially, the business is constantly adapting to support our clients’ evolving needs,” explained David Marcelino, Chief Information Officer. “In addition, our scale allows us to serve global and local clients across the world, while remaining agile and personal in our approach”.

Differentiating itself from its competitors, Mazars prides itself on the quality of its services, including the availability and flexibility of the entire team.

Ensuring ethics is at the forefront, all of Mazars staff share strong quality guidelines, and are determined to exceed technical and ethical standards.

To support the business growth, it has recently completed a ‘partners ecosystem consolidation program’.

“This initiative fosters long-term business and context aware partners, rather than short-term transactional ones,” explained David. “Thanks to this exercise we are proud to work with partners who truly understand our challenges and try to provide the right solution at the right time, based on sustainability, compliance, security and cost efficiency”.

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Tradition Turning to Technology

In Spain, Mazars relies on the skills of more than 700 professionals and is present in seven cities.

Within that roster of talent is David, who as Chief Information Officer is leading on the firm’s Digital Transformation strategy. With more than 15 years of experience in IT leadership roles in complex business environments, David has gained the knowledge to effectively and efficiently foster technology solutions whilst leveraging his team’s talent.

“This helps to drive value through appropriate strategy and purpose, in order to help the businesses to thrive in continuous transformation,” he added.

Whilst the tax and auditing realm can be considered one of the most traditional and regulated industries, the professional services firms have already accelerated their digital transformation journey.

Mazars Digital Transformation strategy intends to balance business continuity and growth alongside several work streams to automate and simplify business operations and enable new digital based business opportunities. Currently, the business priority is to focus on an application modernisation program.

The business has defined its goals to ensure its digital transformation efforts are realised with a positive impact on the business. Initially, this will be via the business’ routine operations and its team’s productivity activities.

“We see the business benefiting from efficiency and quality thanks to automation, application modernisation, and generative AI,” said David, “We are exploring how to safely integrate AI which we believe can add a lot of business value. What is key, is to ensure compliance, with a focus on privacy and security,” said David.

Secondly, the Digital Transformation strategy will see new platforms and innovative solutions being introduced to improve client experience and drive growth.

Supporting Mazars digital transformation is its Innovation Hub, led by key representatives from all the service lines and support functions, who work closely with technology representatives.

Over the last six months, the Innovation Hub has worked to define the first wave of 40 business-use cases forming the foundation to build generative AI based solutions.

“Thanks to this multi-skilled team, the hub has launched some successful innovations, from new cross-selling models to tools and tips” shared David.

Fit for the Future

With digital transformation feeding into Mazars wider growth strategy, the firm will continue to build on its strong foundations with a bold vision for the future: “seizing and creating the right opportunities for our clients, people and industry to succeed,” said David.

“As auditors, tax experts, and advisors, we are set for long term, sustainable growth, ready to move forward while striving for a fairer, more prosperous world,” he continued.

Concluding his discuss with Business Enquirer, David highlighted that:

“In a truly global, volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, we need to commit more than ever to our values and put our digital talent and passion at the forefront of our services.

This will support the development of a fair, equal and sustainable world for business and society.

As business technology leaders, this should now be part of our mission’.

www.mazars.co.uk