Given the mountains of complexity confronting retailers, it will take plenty of hard work—and some clear thinking on tax technology—to maintain focus and to achieve simplicity.
Ongoing globalization, intensifying competition, an ever-increasing regulatory compliance burden and rapidly evolving consumer preferences represent multilayered challenges that generate more costs and additional complexity. Of course, complexity has for a long time defined the retail industry’s tax management challenges. More recent practices and behaviors—such as mobile purchases, click-to-brick returns, store returns that cross tax jurisdictions and more—ensure that this complexity will continue to intensify. Addressing this consequence presents tax technologists with a challenge, as well as an enticing opportunity, according leading retail experts.