Deloitte Transforms Indirect Tax Recovery With AI

For decades, tax professionals have managed the analysis of complex data for indirect tax recovery through time-consuming statistical analysis and sample sets. Due to the sheer amount of data and complex jurisdictional rules, it was nearly impossible for many companies to analyze all indirect tax transactions. As a result, significant indirect tax refunds may not have been claimed. However, technological breakthroughs of the last few years are making this a challenge of the past. Deloitte has deployed a technology-enabled solution —CognitiveTax Insight™ (CogTax) — that provides an increased, improved, and more efficient analysis of clients’ indirect tax data set. CogTax has the ability to analyze the full population, if desired, of a clients’ accounts payable transactions compared to a traditional, sampled approach.

The solution not only allows tax professionals to save time and resources but can help companies to proactively avoid overpaying their indirect tax liabilities. CogTax leverages optical character recognition (OCR), along with advanced machine learning algorithms and analytics, to effectively analyze a full population of data and documents to assist clients with indirect tax overpayment recovery and reduce the potential for future over or underpayments.

“We are finding that through the combination of larger and richer disparate data sets and the application of emerging cognitive technologies we can transform the way our clients approach their indirect tax over and underpayment analysis,” said Andy Gold, tax innovation partner in the multistate tax services practice, Deloitte Tax LLP.

“CogTax moves tax analysis from a manual, administrative process to an automated, machine learning process that brings with it accuracy and scale previously not achievable,” emphasized Deval Reddy, indirect tax principal in the multistate tax services practice, Deloitte Tax LLP.

Cognitive recovery and remediation solutions enable Deloitte Tax professionals to advise clients about their indirect tax needs including:

Efficiently identifying, recovering and remediating overpaid indirect taxes for companies operating in complex transactional data environments.
Capturing key data points from thousands of invoices and documents within days or often hours, as opposed to weeks or months.
Transforming indirect tax analysis, such as recovery, from a backward-looking assessment to a real-time analysis and remediation.
Quickly and accurately analyzing refund potential and exposure/liabilities.

“As part of our ‘Tax in 2020’ initiative, Deloitte is committed to developing innovative technologies that will support our clients as they evolve their tax departments for the future,” said Steve Kimble, chairman and CEO, Deloitte Tax LLP. “Through solutions such as CogTax, we are harnessing the power of OCR and machine learning to provide greater insights and increase efficiencies — effectively reducing the burden on clients and providing them with enhanced value.”

“We are focused on making AI a reality in the tax reporting arena,” added Chuck Kosal, chief transformation officer at Deloitte Tax LLP. “News reports and articles are often focused on future breakthroughs using AI, but the reality is that Deloitte is deploying machine learning to support our clients today. This gets to the heart of our ‘Tax in 2020’ strategy — we are bringing the future to the present and our clients are benefiting now.”

Deloitte’s unprecedented investment in digital transformation is the centerpiece of “Tax in 2020”, a three-year initiative that Deloitte launched. Deloitte will continue to spotlight technology innovations that are helping tax professionals adapt to accelerating globalization, increased regulatory and business complexities and other transformational changes in the tax landscape.