TRI’s “2026 Corporate Tax Department Technology Report” reveals that many in-house tax professionals are eager to use new tax technologies, especially AI-driven tools, but they are feeling frustrated because their organizations are slow to change
Key insights:
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Possibilities vs. practicality — There is a growing frustration gap between what corporate tax professionals want to achieve and what their current technological tools will allow.
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Expectations about AI — Tax professionals have significantly accelerated the timeframe in which they expect AI to become a central part of their workflow.
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Proactive progress — Automation is enabling a gradual shift toward more strategic, proactive tax work, although not as quickly as many tax professionals would like.
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The recently released 2026 Corporate Tax Department Technology Report, from the Thomson Reuters Institute and Tax Executives Institute, reveals that while automation of routine tax functions is indeed enabling a long-desired shift toward more strategic, proactive tax work in some corporate tax departments, a majority of tax leaders surveyed say upgrading their department’s tax technology is still a relatively low priority at their company.
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2026 Corporate Tax Department Technology Report
The report surveyed 170 tax leaders from companies of all sizes to find out how corporate tax professionals are using technology, overcoming obstacles, and planning for the future.
A growing “frustration gap”
In general, the report found that while many companies (especially larger ones) are actively upgrading their tax department’s technological capabilities, there is a growing frustration gap between what tax professionals know they can accomplish with more robust technologies and what their current tools allow them to do.
Adding to this frustration is a growing discrepancy between the additional budget and resources tax departments hope to get each year and the harsher reality they often face. Indeed, even though tax leaders remain optimistic that their budgets and capabilities will expand and improve in the coming years, fewer than half of the respondents surveyed said their departments received a budget increase last year, and many saw budget cuts.
Further, the report shows that the prospect of incorporating ever more sophisticated forms of AI and AI-driven tools into tax workflows is also very much on the minds of tax professionals. Even though the actual usage of AI in corporate tax departments is still relatively low, the report reveals that tax professionals now expect AI become a central part of their workflow within one to two years, much faster than they did in last year’s report.
Indeed, as the report explains, this expectation of more imminent AI adoption represents a significant shift in attitude, because most corporate tax departments are rather circumspect about how, when, and why they incorporate new tech tools into their established routines.
If today’s technological capabilities continue to accelerate, companies that have been slow to invest in the infrastructure necessary to keep pace may soon find themselves struggling to catch up with their more tech-savvy counterparts, the report warns.
Moving toward more proactive work, albeit slowly
For companies that have invested in the technological infrastructure necessary to support advanced tax technologies, the payoff is becoming increasingly evident.
According to the report, about two-thirds (67%) of tax professionals surveyed said their company’s investment in technology had enabled a shift toward more proactive tax work within their departments. This shift is particularly noticeable at large corporations, at which, unsurprisingly, investment in tax technology has been more generous.
The 2026 Corporate Tax Department Technology Report also explores other aspects of corporate tax departments, including their hiring practices, tech training, purchasing strategies, what they see as the most popular tech tools for tax, and numerous other factors that affect how tax departments operate.
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