The burning issues 2010

Executive Summary The burning issues 2010 - The role and responsibilities of the in-house indirect tax advisor

In the 2010 burning issues survey we focused not just on the traditional areas of concern, but also on the impact of the beginning of the recovery on the day-to-day work of the in-house indirect tax advisor. In contrast to previous editions of the survey, we included some of the other responsibilities of in-house indirect tax advisors, especially in the area of customs & global trade. As we have run this survey four times now, we can now establish some trends. The most important trend we can derive is that in strong economic times, during recession, and in the first stages of an upturn, the main burning issues for the in-house indirect tax advisor remain largely the same.

So what are the main burning issues in 2010? This is how they rank this year:

• Juggling too many competing priorities; and Insufficient time or resource
• System & process issues
• Managing compliance
• Implementing the VAT Package

Again it appears that in-house indirect tax advisors are very busy people with limited time and resources but with a lengthy to do list! Systems and processes continue to be a challenge.

We asked participants whether they have been already affected by the initial stages of an upturn, but in general they have not been. Cash flow enhancement however seems to be on the rise now, having already been significant for those who implemented such enhancements during the recession. On the other hand, participants do not seem to have lost sleep over dealing with the numerous VAT rate changes that have occurred.