SYDNEY - Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading provider of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, has today launched its next generation web-based ONESOURCE Corporate Tax solution. In this digital economy, the application has been designed and developed to spearhead the virtualisation of tax and accounting with increased flexibility and agility of compliance activity.

Businesses across the globe are working to create more open and collaborative working systems and processes through enhanced, web-based technologies. The virtualisation of the workplace is growing as companies look to cut costs, increase productivity and optimise transparency across industries and geographies.

Despite the virtualisation of the workplace, the Thomson Reuters 2012 Tax Survey found that Australian tax professionals were failing to evolve in this digital economy. The study found that 94% of respondents still use Excel for data collection and/or reporting, and 60% of companies don’t see the value of the cloud and are therefore set to miss the wave of emerging technology. As a result of inefficient systems, almost half of the respondents (46%) don’t feel they spend enough time adding value to management over and beyond compliance.

Furthermore, a recent Deloitte Access Economics report found that workplace IT is holding back a nation of early adopters as organisations struggle to keep up with personal digital technology which is often considered more advanced at home (1). Paul Brindle, managing director of the Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters, Australia and New Zealand, believes the risks are very real for corporate tax departments who fail to adapt.

“Virtualisation of businesses is becoming the backbone of global enterprises of all sizes,” said Brindle. “From driving revenue to creating competitive differentiation or maximising the flexibility of the workforce, the virtualisation of business is the common denominator in driving business forward today.

“If corporate tax departments fail to evolve, the risks are very real in terms of failing to comply with ever-changing and complex legislation; the provision of global tax reporting; developing transparent and auditable tax trails and clear communication channels; and ensuring the board and management has a thorough understanding of an organisation’s tax position.”

With increasing pressure to do more with less in order to remain competitive as well as a business environment evolving to one with no borders, Thomson Reuters is closing the gap many companies face by launching a next-generation platform.

“The beauty of our new Corporate Tax solution is that our clients will have round-the-clock connectivity, allowing tax departments to effortlessly add, share, delete, import, review and refine data with less version control conflicts, even if they are in different locations,” continued Brindle. “When everything is in place, organisations can then simply lodge their returns electronically.”

Key benefits of the new ONESOURCE Corporate Tax platform include:

• Web hosted platform giving you access to your calculations & data more easily
• Electronic lodgement of your tax returns via Standard Business Reporting (SBR)
• User-friendly tools make reviewing, sharing, importing and calculating very simple
• Make the software your own through customisable options
• Easily add, modify and remove workpapers, line items and adjustments
• Upgrades and maintenance are not needed with a hosted platform reducing IT hassles peace of mind security with full control over who has access to system; user roles; and 24/7 disaster recovery

(1) ‘The Connected Workplace: war for talent in the digital economy’, Deloitte Access Economics, Australia, June 2013

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial and risk, legal, tax and accounting, intellectual property and science and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs approximately 60,000 people and operates in over 100 countries. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges (symbol: TRI). For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com.