Moving beyond tax technical advisory only

Surveys are alarming

If indirect tax risks are truly that high, then shouldn’t it receive more attention from the CFO?

Richard H. Cornelisse: That’s exactly the reason I started the Global Indirect Tax Management initiative. It’s not that the problem is unknown among the multinationals, but they just don’t share information sufficiently. The Indirect Tax Function is aware of the fact that it is understaffed and that budget is too limited to optimally execute its tasks, but they often don’t know how to change this and get it on the agenda of the CFO.

How it all started

How I started simply by 'sharing my views' and 'take position'.

At Andersen around 2000, I discovered that my advice about VAT cash flow optimization was wrongly implemented in the ERP system resulting in a cash flow disadvantage for many years. That was my eye opener and was actually the reason that I set up as one of the first a team with a focus on ERP and indirect tax solutions.

Understanding the root cause and solving the real problem became from that moment on my mantra and I also started to write and share my views. Certain views - looking back - can now be argued, but that is exactly the reason why I am sharing these articles as it simply shows my way of thinking at that time and gives some insight about developments.

The Andersen team continued when we moved to EY. We branded the service offering in 2002: 'ISIS' (Indirect tax Solutions for Information Systems). In hindsight not really a good name.

VAT ERP remains still an important VAT critical process to manage, however it is only one of the building blocks of indirect tax function effectiveness. The launch of this website has taken it all a step further as all of its building blocks are addressed and discussed. I refer to the Tables of Contents.

How it all started: '2005 - 2012 - A selection of my publications': my own road trip.