Corporate tax departments are looking to break free from their compliance-focused reputation to become strategic business partners that can influence critical decisions on M&A, risk management, and organizational resilience — but how do they get there?
Key takeaways:
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Reframe your value proposition — Translate tax achievements into business language the C-suite understands, such as protecting shareholder value, enabling growth, and mitigating risk rather than simply reporting compliance metrics.
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Invest strategically in technology and talent — Prioritize automation and AI tools while outsourcing strategically to free internal resources for high-value strategic work that demonstrates the department’s business impact.
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Build cross-functional partnerships — Proactively collaborate with IT, legal, operations, and HR on enterprise-wide initiatives that will position the tax function as an essential strategic partner rather than an isolated compliance department.
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SAN FRANCISCO — In recently released 2025 State of the Corporate Tax Department report, published by the Thomson Reuters Institute and Tax Executives Institute, a large portion of the tax department professionals surveyed expressed their desired to do more strategic work compared to simple tactical work. This was a theme we’ve seen repeatedly across our research: Tax professionals are shedding their traditional compliance-focused image and moving toward becoming strategic business partners to their organizations.
By articulating their value proposition, investing strategically in technology and talent, and aligning with broader business objectives, tax department leaders can secure the resources and influence needed to drive meaningful organizational impact.
Yet, the tax function has long been viewed as a necessary cost center — a department that ensures compliance, files returns, and manages audits — despite the essential work that in-house tax professionals do. Rarely did these professionals feel they are treated as strategic business partners. However, perception is rapidly changing, according to the insights shared at the recent Tax Executives Institute (TEI) 2025 Annual Conference.
Today’s tax leaders are positioning their teams as strategic partners who provide critical insights that influence business resilience, growth strategies, and organizational risk management, conference panelists explained.
The evolving role of the tax function
Amid ongoing tax and trade policy shifts and increased business uncertainty, opportunities abound for tax professionals in corporate tax departments. Indeed, several panelists noted that the State of the Corporate Tax Department report showed that tax leaders are increasingly becoming deeply involved in strategic decisions ranging from business resilience strategy (with 63% of survey respondents saying their tax department is involved in this area) to M&A transactions (60%), organizational risk management (58%), and supply chain management (55%).
Further, CFOs are increasingly looking to their in-house tax leaders for support across multiple strategic areas, including digital transformation and AI, ESG strategy, workforce strategy, and economic resilience planning. This expanded role creates for the tax team creates both opportunities and challenges for those seeking to demonstrate their strategic value.
By articulating their value proposition, investing strategically in technology and talent, and aligning with broader business objectives, tax department leaders can secure the resources and influence needed to drive meaningful organizational impact.
In fact, one of the most pressing question tax leaders face is how to secure adequate budget funding in an environment of competing corporate priorities. The answer lies in strategic thinking about resource allocation and being intentional about having a seat at the table to better advocate for necessary investments. Tax department leaders must educate executive leadership on the risks that come with not having enough budget resources — from trying to do more with less to the potential for the company to face more exposure and risk that includes increased audits and fines.
As session panelists explained, the key is to frame discussions in terms that C-Suite leaders understand. Rather than simply requesting more resources, tax leaders should articulate how investments in the tax function can all it to better protect revenue, enable growth opportunities, and mitigate organizational risk.
Creating a value-focused identity
That articulation to management is a big step toward a tax function’s goal to move from feeling and acting like a cost center to being a strategic partner to the business. Indeed, corporate tax department leaders must change their own perceptions of how the department is perceived first — in essence, rebranding themselves and reimagining their identity. This starts with creating a compelling value story that resonates with the C-suite.
Start with creating (or recreating) a department mission statement that emphasizes value creation rather than mere compliance, aligning with broader priorities of the organization, such as business partnership and growth. Then, work to provide insights to drive decisions, and support regulatory demands while maintaining transparency.
Check out our recent Clarity podcast for more insight on how corporate tax professionals shift from compliance to strategic work
One practical approach is to speak the language of the C-suite by translating tax achievements into business metrics that executives care about, panelists added. For example, rather than reporting that the department completed the tax provision on time, frame it instead as the department protected $X million in shareholder value through accurate financial reporting or enabled the acquisition to close on schedule by providing timely tax due diligence.
It is also important for tax departments to track and communicate their wins consistently, panelists said, creating regular touchpoints with executive leadership to share accomplishments that position the tax function as a proactive business partner.
Navigating technology, talent, and collaboration
Technology investment represents both an opportunity and a challenge for tax departments, as the State of the Corporate Tax Department report makes clear. More than half of the respondents say they expected some increase in their budgets to invest in new tech tools over the next few years, and many indicate they plan to invest in tools and solutions to automate their workflow, especially those that support machine learning and generative AI (GenAI).
While it is great they are anticipating an increased budget, panelist explained that tax department leaders must educate management on the practical challenges of AI adoption, including the need for clean, well-structured data as a foundation.
It is also important for tax departments to track and communicate their wins consistently, creating regular touchpoints with executive leadership to share accomplishments that position the tax function as a proactive business partner.
On another point, staffing remains one of the most critical challenges facing tax departments, and many survey respondents cited hiring as key strategic priority, according to the report. Many departments will also look to technology to augment the missing talent and strategically use outsourcing and co-sourcing to alleviate talent pressure as well. And by partnering with external advisors for specialized compliance work or surge capacity during peak periods, tax departments can further free up internal resources to focus on higher-value strategic activities.
In fact, a central theme the session panelists leaned into was how the most effective tax departments build strong collaborative relationships across the organization. According to the report, 94% of CFOs and tax leaders report that the CFO helps facilitate cross-collaboration between tax and other functions such as legal, IT, operations, and finance.
Tax department leaders should proactively seek these opportunities to partner with other departments on strategic initiatives; for example, collaborating with IT on digital transformation, working with operations on supply chain optimization, partnering with legal on M&A transactions, and supporting HR on workforce strategy.
Today, the transformation of the corporate tax function from cost center to strategic partner is not merely aspirational — it is already underway in many forward-thinking organizations. As tax, audit, and trade policy become more complex and business uncertainty continues to mount, the opportunity for tax leaders to demonstrate their strategic value to the organization has never been greater.
You can download a full copy of the 2025 State of the Corporate Tax Department, from the Thomson Reuters Institute and Tax Executives Institute, here
