How is your company managing risk in the changing legislative and regulatory landscape?
The current tax environment is increasingly difficult to navigate without assistance due to heightened legislative and regulatory scrutiny of US, foreign, and cross-border tax transactions and structures. Multinational companies today are confronting the challenges of a highly dynamic global environment and are forced to adjust rapidly—sometimes reinventing themselves to withstand an uncertain economy, fierce competition, and unprecedented shareholder, board, and regulatory oversight.
Our experience indicates that, in today’s environment, executives are more accountable and responsible for their company’s actions, but may be less comfortable with certain of their company’s transactions and structures. At the same time, management and advisor turnover often makes it difficult to gain comfort that important matters are being appropriately addressed—including those related to the company’s tax position.
As a result, executives are seeking guidance and a fresh and independent perspective to confirm that their company’s tax position remains "healthy" (i.e., that the company has appropriately addressed its material tax risks). Those tax risks generally fall into two categories:
- The risk of tax and penalty assessments and/or reputational risk resulting from vulnerable tax positions taken on existing material transactions and structures; and
- The risk of overpaying taxes through failure to implement tax planning and structuring opportunities.
Opportunity: Managing risk through business-driven tax planning
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ risk assessment services group has developed a risk assessment program that identifies specific tax risks and tax attributes to assess a company’s tax position and may identify appropriate business-oriented tax planning opportunities. The group’s focused approach takes into account both direct and indirect taxes and the tax risks associated with material transactions and/or structures, as an integral part of developing and analyzing a company’s tax profile.
The services provided by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ risk assessment & solutions group can cover a wide range of areas, including the tax technical aspects of specified transactions, ultimately allowing the company to understand and improve their overall risk.
