We asked a new question in the current survey to investigate the focus of the tax department on setting KPIs. Encouragingly, a high proportion of respondents report the existence of formal KPIs across a wide range of tax department activities. Consistent with the priority given to compliance and reporting, the highest degree of KPI setting relates to this activity.
The percentages are lower for activities that can add value, such as process improvement and business integration. This raises the question of whether tax departments are reluctant to set KPIs in more strategic areas or whether setting reasonable benchmarks for these activities is a difficult metric to put in place.