The Best Tax Software Available And Why Multinationals Are Using Them For Cross Border Payments

The development of tax software has been a huge innovation in the financial sector, due to its ability to manage and organise a business’s tax payments without the need for costly accountancy fees. The ability of such programmes goes further than simply providing filing management with governmental bodies such as the HMRC, with such factors as tax allowances, deductions and all other expenses that require detailed and consistent management all taken care of while being compatible with local legal legislation. The most public accessible software is provided by companies such as Sage, QuickBooks and Xero as their systems are designed for simple yet effective functionality that is easy for any business to utilise. Sage has a large profile in the UK, where it offers many levels of service at different price points that also allow such services as PayPal functionality and a strong support system. QuickBooks actually offers many different services, while keeping it all simple with dedicated mobile integration, while Xero provides a limit of 5 invoices and quotes unless you pay for the premium version which handles multiple currencies and provides a comparable service to that of the other two. These types of software have a mass market appeal; however, they provide scalable options for any business that may need to integrate their taxation into one easy use platform. Despite this, often larger companies such as multinationals need to do much more complex organisation of their responsibilities, leading them to consider these options whilst also looking to find companies that may also handle their immense needs more efficiently. A more corporate alternative to these is provided by such companies as Thomson Reuters. They use software known as ONESOURCE, which is designed to provide larger capabilities than others by focusing on the most complex elements of taxation and seeking to address them. While working within the traditional interface, you can use the add-on options to adapt and grow your services with the business, providing web-based solutions and high-level encryption. The foreign expertise of the system,

and its one-time data entry make it a strong solution that is specifically engineered to meet the needs of larger companies rather than to provide an all-encompassing provision. There are also new developing companies who are seeking to address these needs at a much higher level. One such company is Taxdoo, a company whose aim is to only expand their offerings with a focus on cross-border e-commerce companies, specialising in the provisions of an automated platform for financial compliance that has already raised $21 million to achieve this goal as of December last year. They aim to provide access to tax advisors for collaboration and efficiency. Their typical client base earns revenues of up to £10 million per year, with a portfolio including some companies 15 times bigger. When considering options in this specific sector, Taxdoo and similar companies are tailor made to address the needs and issues faced by companies trading internationally. Multinationals are using such methods, especially for cross-border payments and other costs that involve different international laws due to the sheer complexity involved in handling all the ways they have to respond and act lawfully. With the advantage of automation, there is a much better control over performing these processes by eliminating the margin of error and streamlining the entire workload. The burden provided by businesses operating internationally is also increasing due to the ever-rising complexity regarding VAT, accounts management and the laws around compliance which requires information and figures to be spread alongside many different systems. By merging these into one, this makes the process almost automatic with transactional data, tax calculations, adjustments, and filings across Europe and the world being synced and stored together. This is also in response to the shift in international product sales, where selling has become much easier and demand has grown for the new options, leading to the confusion or possible violation of rules without digital support. Automation of the entire chain allows for the data to be instantly recognised when it comes through the different channels into the systems, leading to thorough analysis that compares and investigates all relevant requirements before being filed on behalf of the company. One of the largest factors for this new move into tax software is down to the acceleration of the digitalisation process caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. With the inability to access physical retailers, e-commerce grew exponentially changing the way the world shopped and resulting in many corporations either collapsing or moving fully online whether due to their own change in strategy, or because of the need of new investors/takeovers that automatically changed the company at its core. Some of the latest data on the rise of cross-border transactions details that this now forms around 25% of all the e-commerce transactions throughout Western Europe and Scandinavia with this figure only set to continue growing into the future. As this happens, companies will only look to continue to develop their methods, leading to the creation of more multinationals as companies look to take advantage of the sector.