5 Factors to Look Out for When Finding the Right Tax Outsourcing Partner

 

With growing complexities in regulation and compliance, today’s tax teams would find themselves requiring more technical skills, knowledge and expertise in their field. This complexity also highlights the need for qualified personnel to handle a company’s taxation concerns. By outsourcing tax, you can gain several advantages including saving time, reducing risk, and having a knowledgeable practitioner to work with you. 

Read more: 6 Ways How Professional Tax Compliance Benefits You 

Finding the right tax firm to outsource can be challenging. What you should look out for and what are the factors to help you decide? Here, we will break down some key considerations on how to identify and select the right tax outsourcing partner for your business.  

• Communication & Responsiveness  

Communication is essential for successful outsourcing, especially tax outsourcing. When interacting with prospective firms and partners, look at how well their teams can understand your needs and how prompt are their interactions with you. It is necessary to have an outsourcing partner who can understand the requirements your team needs. 

The tax outsourcing service provider must be well-versed in the final date for submissions and other similar tasks. They should be able to specify the duration it will take to complete filling the tax. All this is to ensure that your company’s tax queries and submissions are done in time to avoid unnecessary penalties. Thus, communication is the lifeline of a successful collaboration between you and your tax compliance partner. 

Here are some ways you can manage your communication with the tax firm better:

• Share necessary files and information early on and make them easily accessible to the team
• Specify a communication channel (email, phone) 
• Set an agreeable time to correspond or meet especially when working with a partner from a different time zone  
• Check-in once a while or have a meeting to touch base and get updates 

Finally, the firm or partner you are looking for should be transparent from the start of the conversation. You can ask about fees, pricing plans and situations where extra charges might apply. A lack of transparency can result in misunderstandings that can jeopardize the quality of the collaboration.  

• Track Record & Past Clients 

Does the prospective tax outsourcing service provider have a good track record? With whom had they worked before? By looking at their past clientele, you can get a picture of the tax firm’s performance and professionalism. Referrals and testimonials are typically shown on the outsourcing company’s website but you could also request to see portfolio and case studies during the discovery meeting. 

Additionally, if the partner demonstrates auditor independence, which is when they offer tax accounting services without also doing the auditing, it can be a good sign of trustworthiness.

Read more : What is auditor independence and & Why is it important ? 

• Expertise in Tax Compliance  

When looking and choosing the perfect tax partner to work with, it is helpful to learn about their credentials, background, and experience. While having more years of experience is intuitively good, you can also consider what accreditation and certification they possess.  

Tax accountants and compliance professionals can help more than submitting your tax returns and answering to local tax authorities. They can provide insightful advice and consultation. Take your time doing your research and ask the prospective partner questions about how they can help. 

• Privacy Terms

Before outsourcing your tax agenda, have a procedure and precaution to ensure your data can be shared safely with the right party. For example, you could use encryption when storing and sending sensitive data, or record all transactions and movement of documents.  

Next, learn about how your tax firm will be handling your data. What would their procedures be so only a select team will work on your tax data? What is included in the firm’s privacy terms? Are there any countermeasures during a possible data breach? These and a lot more questions on privacy and security can be asked to help you decide on the right tax outsourcing solution. 

• Other Scope of Work 

Last but certainly not least, you should opt for a tax partner who can also offer extensive services that relate to tax accounting. Find a partner who can help you scale your company by providing a wider range of services, such as accounting and payroll. 

It is easier to collaborate and work with a firm as a one stop center rather than hunting for different types of services with multiple firms. The needs of your business will be much more understood by the current tax outsourcing partner whom you are working with since you are both aligned and the rapport has been established. 

 

Conclusion

 

The goal of outsourcing is usually to achieve better work efficiency. So, your tax compliance partner should help you achieve your objectives and work better and smarter. Consider the factors we have talked about when finding and evaluating the right outsourcing provider. In the end, you would want to reap the benefits of outsourcing your tax compliance. 

Ledgen Group’s team of capable tax specialists are able to help your business with a variety of corporate, GST, and personal tax services. We have helped clients solve tax-related issues with success and work with them to find the best solutions. 

Connect with us to get started.   

 

 

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