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“We definitely need a tax platform that can help us better meet our parent company’s reporting deadlines faster than we traditionally deliver. Standardizing the reports will also help us understand where the source data is coming from. Transforming the review process and saving time across the entire calculation, reporting and compliance system is our ultimate goal. “
Tax technological innovation for systems and controls
BESIX Watpac is the result of the merger of two large companies – the global BESIX group headquartered in Belgium and one of Australia’s most prominent construction companies, Watpac. Today, BESIX Watpac is redefining construction with its vast international experience, expertise and financial strength to deliver complex large-scale infrastructure projects.
Challenge:
Simplify standardized tax reporting for better results
BESIX Watpac’s tax function supports international tax compliance and reporting requirements for 15 different local entities in Australia and New Zealand. Historically, the tax and finance team handled tax calculations and reports with electronic spreadsheets. Now, however, with a continued focus on governance – and inevitably an increase in global reporting requirements – BESIX Watpac realized that it would benefit from a specialized data management platform for tax calculations, the reporting and compliance.
BESIX Watpac relied on several spreadsheets for tax compliance and reporting. These spreadsheets did not always provide transparency of the underlying numbers due to linking errors, making it difficult to verify and understand their origin. As BESIX Watpac moved to quarterly tax allowance calculations, it was inevitable that the discussion of potential error rates, manual entry issues, and workloads became more critical.
The company conducted a tax technology market assessment, building on its vision of finding a platform to better meet its growing tax filing needs and accelerated timelines. This tax technology is also expected to support tax risk management to meet the requirements of tax insurance reviews and the ATO’s Justified Trust initiative.
BESIX Watpac also wanted to ensure that its tax calculations would automatically carry over from one year to the next.
Solution:
Create a roadmap for flexible reporting and valuable insights
BESIX Watpac has completed a review of competitive market offerings to help it realize its vision of best practice tax governance.
“There was already support for CCH Integrator internally and an appreciation of how it could improve our governance and processes. Another key factor in CCH Integrator’s favor was its ability to keep up with increasing calculations and reporting requirements, ”said Genna.
Today, BESIX Watpac trusts CCH Integrator to support its long-term commitment to quality tax compliance and reporting. As a multi-jurisdictional tax technology platform, CCH Integrator provides the necessary data to the relevant tax authorities in Australia and New Zealand.
“CCH Integrator was the perfect choice for BESIX Watpac with its proven track record,” says Genna. “It delivers the right amount of confidence and everyone realizes it ‘works’ for our business. “
Key Benefits:
Flexible and fast tax platform
Improved accuracy and review processes
Multi-jurisdictional compliance and reporting
From one person to multinational teams, CCH Integrator streamlines the complexity of tax compliance and reporting across multiple entities and jurisdictions, increasing control, reducing risk, and freeing up your tax function to focus on larger things.
Advantages:
CCH Integrator Halves Computing Time and Expands Reporting Capabilities
BESIX Watpac now benefits from the rapid reporting capabilities that CCH Integrator can offer. It achieved substantial savings over its quarterly tax calculation schedule and provided reports up to a sole proprietorship which would have taken significantly longer with previous spreadsheet templates. For Genna, reporting at various levels outside the consolidated group was quite “unexpected and a huge advantage to do it with just a click”.
Additionally, when the business needs to do live calculations in CCH Integrator, the review process ensures that it captures any potential errors from any source spreadsheet.
“With insurance reviews underway for the Justified Trust initiative, which ensures Australian businesses pay the right amount of tax, it is more important than ever to understand the results and processes, data controls and capabilities of tax technology. By expanding our review and reporting capabilities, we continue to raise the bar in tax governance and compliance, ”said Genna.
BESIX Watpac anticipates that CCH Integrator’s country-by-country capabilities will also prove invaluable.
“As part of our gradual rollout, we are implementing CCH Integrator and integrating it into the team. Once we have our first full reporting exercise under our belt, we will consider adding additional functionality, such as automated country-by-country reporting, ”she said.
Another highlight of the new tax technology system was the implementation of CCH Integrator.
“I already knew and had experience with CCH Integrator from my previous position. I was again impressed with the level of service and training from the Wolters Kluwer team. For anyone still struggling with spreadsheets, you can fully automate accrual calculations and benefit from specialized tax technology, ”said Genna.
