2008 0326 PPT_-_Best_Practices.pdf - Tax Executives Institute, Inc.

Corporate Tax 

Tax Function Effectiveness 

Impact results* 

Best Practices for Corporate Tax Function 

*connectedthinking 

*connectedthinking 

• 

•

The views expressed in this presentation are not intended as, 

and should not be relied on, as accounting, auditing, regulatory, 

or tax advice. This document was not intended or written to be 

used, and it cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding U.S. 

federal, state or local tax penalties. 

The outcome of any independent situation depends on the 

specific facts and circumstances in which the issue arises and on 

the interpretation of FAS 109 and other relevant literature, laws, 

and regulations in effect at the time. 


PricewaterhouseCoopers 

2

Agenda 

• Issues driving change in the Tax function 

• A new way of looking at Tax operations – Critical Enablers 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

People 

Process 

Technology 

Data 

Controls 

Strategy 

Structure 



3

Introduction 

• Corporate tax functions are experiencing 

significant operational challenges due 

to regulatory changes and emerging 

market trends 

• These challenges have resulted in 

internal control deficiencies, financial 

restatements, resource shortages or in 

some extreme instances, a general loss 

of confidence in tax function 

• CFO's and Tax VP's are expressing 

interest in new ways to avoid many of 

missteps experienced by other 

companies 

• Convergence of these events has led 

many companies to focus on ways to 

improve operational effectiveness of 

their corporate tax function 



4

Introduction - Today’s Challenges 

VP Tax 

Regulatory Issues 

• Sox 404 

• FIN 48 

• IRS access to provision workpapers 

• IRS focus on contemporaneous 

documentation 

• e-filing 

• FAS 123R 

• Reportable transactions 

• Transfer pricing 

• Focus on transparency 

• US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on 

Investigations 

Tax Function Trends 

• Internal control deficiencies 

• Increase in restatements due to 

tax accounting 

• Data quality or access issues 

• Difficult/lengthy closing process 

• Historic under-investment in technology and 

process improvement compared to overall 

Finance function 

• Inefficient processes, use of technology 

• Lack of collaboration with stakeholders 

• Leadership changes 

• Outdated compensation models 

• Resource shortages 

• Increased questions about off-shoring 

• IFRS convergence 



5

Common Tax Operational Impediments 

• High overtime 

• Low morale 

• Market resource shortages 

• Headcount limitations 

• Excessive use of temporary workers 

• Outdated compensation models 

• Less staff coaching and staff development 

• Lack of senior management appreciation 

for emerging challenges 

• Lack of succession planning 

• Isolation of tax staff 

• Inefficient processes 

• Excessive use of spreadsheets 

• Inability to influence others outside of tax 

• Historical “hybrid APB 11” approach 

• FIN 18 challenges 

• Multiple manual touches of data 

• General loss of confidence in tax 

• Extensive reserve account reconciliation process 

• Lack of integrated technology platform 

• Little support from IT 

• Poor data quality/lack of data mapping 

• Difficult data accumulation from international 

operations 

• Difficult relationships with external auditors 

• Less time for analytical review 

• One way communication with finance/cultural 

challenges 

• “Bottoms up” approach to controls 

• Crisis mentality with less time for planning 

• Disincentives for claiming prior refunds 

• Difficulty generating information to support 

planning 

• Lack of individual or departmental goals 

• Poor internal collaboration due to 

ineffective structure 

• Lack of alignment to businesses 

• Top heavy staffing / lack of leverage 

• Difficulty responding to legislation 



6

A Critical Disconnect Between Finance and Tax 

Observation: 

A staggering 48 point variance in 

the priorities expressed by those 

in Tax as compared to Finance 

peers related to tax accounting. 

A frustrating 25 point variance in 

the priority for Tax technology 

projects. 

Conclusion: 

This disconnect presents a major 

challenge for Tax executives. A 

greater effort seems necessary 

to educate Finance as to the 

value proposition for Tax 

technology initiatives. 



Source: Building a More Effective Tax Function, CFO Research 

Services and Hudson Financial Solutions, October 2006 

7

The Tax Best Practices Continuum 

Typical 

Improving 

Best in Class 

• Significant deficiencies - SOX 

• High turnover 

• Headcount higher than peers 

• Low technology investment 

• Little IT support 

• Poor linkage with finance 

• Lack of CFO level support 

• File on statutory due dates 

• Material provision to return 

adjustments 

• Little interaction with BU’s 

• Progress toward addressing 

SOX deficiencies 

• Stable tax team 

• Headcount in line with peers 

• Periodic formal interaction with 

business units 

• Sporadic IT allocations for 

initiatives and maintenance 

• File on or shortly before 

statutory due dates 

• Controls integrated into 

processes 

• Strong CFO support for Tax 

• Board and management 

interaction 

• Strong interaction with business 

units 

• Great place to work initiatives 

• Leverage model for staffing 

• Appropriate IT support 

• Tax IT budget 

• Immaterial provision to return 

• Strong linkage with accounting 

• Tax risk management focus 

• File in advance of stat due dates 

• Continuous improvement 



Where are you 

8

PwC’s Tax Function Effectiveness Framework 

Differentiates “Best in Class” Tax Functions 

Tax Function Deliverables 

Tax Planning 

Tax Accounting 

People 

Process 

Technology 

Data 

Enablers 

Tax Compliance 

Risk Management 

Controls 

Leadership and Organization 

Career Development and Challenge 

Strategy 

Best in Class Tax Technology Platform 

Audit Defense 

Internal Communication with Tax Stakeholders 

Structure 



Best in Class Differentiators 

9

Contents 

1 

People 

2 

3 

4 

5 

Process 

Technology 

Data 

Controls 

6 Strategy 

7 

Structure 



10

Best Practices – People 

Fundamentals 

• Do we have the right # of people 

• Do they have the appropriate technical competencies 

• Are they in the right locations 

• Are the reporting lines effective 

• Is there a viable career path and succession plan 

Key Themes: 

• More reliance on Senior Tax Executive to represent the Tax 

Function to internal stakeholders (Business Units, Board, 

Controllers, IT) 

• Closer connection to business units 

• Integration with Finance - Internal collaboration to facilitate 

knowledge sharing 

• Strategic training to build new skills and foster a coaching 

development environment 



11

Changing Skill Set - Best in Class Tax Leadership 

Issues Driving Change 

• Short supply of qualified personnel 

FAS109 talent 

is scarce 

Staff retention and 

developing in-house talent is 

increasingly important 

• Higher risk associated with tax 

function leads to more attention 

from and interaction with senior 

executives 

• Convergence of need for speed to 

meet faster close cycle times and 

increasing demand for 

transparency in financial reporting 

with rapid fire changes in tax and 

accounting rules impacting taxes 

(141(R), FIN 48, 123R, FAS5, Sec 

199) 

These skills will become 

increasingly important and 

differentiate best in class tax 

leadership from typical 

• People development 

• Coaching 

• Mentoring 

• Executive presence 

• Presentation skills 

• Insight 

• Forward thinking 

• Global relationships 

• Collaborative style 



12

Emerging Role - Tax Controller 

A Best Practice picking up momentum is establishment of a new position on 

the Tax Organization Chart - Tax Controller 

Tax Controller Role: 

Risk Management 

Tax Risk Management (TRM) policy development and execution 

404 Management 

404 compliance to include control definition, documentation and planning for their 

execution and testing 

FAS109 Technician 

Tax Accounting Technician - Tax Controller will have skills to properly assess tax 

accounting treatment and related disclosure for a broad range of corporate transactions 

Tax B/S Accounts 

Owns accuracy of Tax balance sheet accounts related to payables and deferred taxes 

Tax Reserves 

FIN48 and FAS5 – responsible for Tax accounting compliance with key GAAP 

pronouncements such as FAS 141(R), FIN48, FAS5, FAS123R, FIN18 and others 

Attest Firm Liaison 

Primary liaison with independent attest firm in connection with their audit examinations 



13

Contents 

2 

1 

3 

4 

5 

People 

Process 

Technology 

Data 

Controls 

6 Strategy 

7 

Structure 



14

Best Practices - Process 

Fundamentals 

• Are they fresh 

• Is there a better way 

• Are there unnecessary gatekeepers 

• Are there other dependencies causing loss of control 

• Is there standardization and consistency 

• Do they satisfy control requirements 

Key Themes: 

• Side by side collaboration with Controllers and bright line ownership 

of tax accounting is well defined 

• Integrate tax compliance, planning and controversy with tax 

accounting 

• Increased focus on FIN18 requirements rather than “hard close” on 

the quarters. 

• Standardize and document key policies and processes in the form of 

Operations Manual 



15

The process paradigm shift 

The strategic vision for world class tax organizations regarding tax reporting and 

compliance is a lower overall work load and more time focused on value-added 

decision support. This includes tax planning and analysis. 

Current Environment 

“Paradigm 

Shift” 

Strategic Vision 

Tax planning & analysis 

Reporting, control & controversy 

Actions: 

• Simplify and standardize processes 

through clearly communicated 

policies and procedures, including 

materiality in key tax processes 

• Elimination of redundant processes, 

rework activities and manual data 

manipulation. 

• Improve process through technology 

and data enablers: 

Tax sensitize financial reporting 

systems 

Implement data management 

tools to reuse data across the tax 

function 

Results: 

• Enhanced value to the company 

• Optimized resource utilization 

• Integrated processes with finance 

• Reduced time to report 



Data collection and manipulation 

16

Process improvement objectives 

• Enable tax and finance business 

partnership through process 

excellence 

• Deliver the “right” information at the 

“right” time 

• Create clear roles & 

responsibilities for each process 

• Ensure internal controls and 

accountability are consistent and 

clear 

• Improve accuracy of deliverables 

• Identify necessary investments for 

optimal delivery 

Strategic Vision 

Tax planning & analysis 

Reporting, control & controversy 

Data collection and manipulation 



17

Contents 

3 

1 

2 

4 

5 

6 

7 

People 

Process 

Technology 

Data 

Controls 

Strategy 

Structure 



18

On-Site and Off-Site Stakeholders 

ERP 

SAP 

Oracle 

PeopleSoft 

JDE 

1 

3 

Web-enabled 

data collection 

Tax Function Web Portal 

4 

7 

Web access to 

completed 

work product 

1 

Extract, 

Transform and 

Load Tools 

2 

Work in Process 

Tax 

Data Repository / 

Business Warehouse 

(Legal Entity Books) 

Tax Provision 

Software 

Compliance 

Software 

Planning/Audit 

Defense Software 

5 6 

Final Product 

Document 

Management System 

Version & Access Control 

Audit-Ready Files 

Classify, index, sort 

& report 

Best in class tax technology platform 



19

Tips for embarking on technology improvements…. 

1. Take it in small pieces, it’s a modular solution 

2. Prioritize the components to meet your most urgent requirements 

3. Stage implementation over years to manage the budget and manage the 

change 



20

Quantifying the Technology & Process Improvement Value 

Proposition 

Greater Efficiencies + Lower Risk of Error - Cost to Implement = 

ROI 

Create Capacity among Staff 

Improve Quality of Deliverables 

Lower Staff Turnover 

Increase Analysis 

Retain Institutional Knowledge 

Enhance Knowledge Sharing 

Connect Tax Personnel Globally 

Simplify Response to Audits 

Strengthen Internal Controls 

Improve Forecasting Capability 



Value Proposition Components 

Tax Technology and Process Improvement Investment 

21

Benchmarking Data - Tax Technology Spend 

PwC Observations 

• Outdated technology due to 

historical low priority 

• Use of tax preparation software 

for income and sales/use tax and 

often little else 

• Most Tax functions struggle to 

justify a budget to build out a tax 

data warehouse, integrate 

systems, implement a document 

management system, etc. 

• Finance leaders don’t fully 

understand the need for 

investments in Tax technology 

and process improvement efforts. 

Source – TEI 2004-2005 Corporate Tax Department Survey 



22

Future of 21st Century Tax Technology 

Market Trends 

• Eventual vendor consolidation 

• Potential competition from ERP 

and consolidation providers 

• Increased use of tax data 

warehouse applications 

• Integration of tax accounts, 

compliance, defense, planning, 

provision, work flow, and 

document management 

• Increased exploration and pursuit 

of off-shoring 



23

Scanning the market for Tax Technology: What’s available 

Current Inventory of Applications 

• Tax data warehouse 

• Tax preparation 

• FAS109 

• FIN 48 

• State Planning 

• International Planning/FTC 

• Document Management 

• Workflow 

• R&D Credit 

• Transfer Pricing 

• Tax Calendar 

• Interest & Penalty calculators 

• Sales/Use Tax compliance 

• Global Entity & Compliance Tracking System 

• Web enabled data collection tools 

• Web portal for the Tax function 

• IDR and Audit Tracking Tools 



Observations 

• No one company does it all 

• Access to capital and talent is driving 

development strategy for some – those 

developing one-off products with no 

apparent cohesive strategy 

- Old Paradigm – tax compliance is 

center of tax technology universe 

- Recent Paradigm – Tax accounting is 

center of tax technology universe 

- Future Paradigm – High end, 

sophisticated data collection tools and 

data warehousing functionality is 

emerging center of tax technology 

universe – Business Intelligence and 

ETL functionality to standardize data 

sourced from disparate systems 

24

Best in Class Tax Technology Platform 

A realistic set of technology goals moving you closer to Best in Class 

Goal 

• Legal entity accounting directly in ERP and 

consolidation of multiple ERP systems 

• Tax personnel should have direct access to ERP 

system 

• Use ERP fixed asset module for book and tax 

depreciation (integration of financial and tax systems) 

• Tax sensitize accounts in ERP 

• Evaluate and stabilize key Excel spreadsheets 

• Standardize data collection tools for a common 

platform across all subsidiaries 

• Evaluate third party applications for Provision 

computations and reporting 

• Review XML and XBRL data tagging for complex, 

labor intensive computations 

• Shift from storing documents in hard copy and a 

shared network drive to a Document Management 

System 



Benefit 

• Real time versus historical focus – leverage 

technology to address ever faster financial close cycle 

• Tax position accumulated on continual real time basis 

with reliability and accuracy 

• Improved audit trail and audit defense capability and 

tighter control over record retention 

• Tax analysis performed in connection with regular 

accounting close cycles 

• Minimizes risk by reducing reliance on spreadsheets 

• Improves communication and access to information 

• Automation can increase the capacity of your tax 

personnel – do more with same headcount 

• Easier access to tax return data to facilitate planning 

25

Contents 

1 

2 

People 

Process 

4 

3 Technology 

Data 

5 Controls 

6 

7 

Strategy 

Structure 



26

Best Practices – Data 

Fundamentals 

• Minimize effort to: 

- Collect high quality and comprehensive data 

- Manipulate (useable format) 

- Validate (prove its accurate (ie. data quality)) 

Key Themes: 

• Speed - Do you receive data at the right time, when really needed 

• Recycle for multiple purposes 

• Data integrity achieved by integrating financial systems with tax 

systems 

• Data Warehouses and Data Marts preserve historical attributes of tax 

information (catch phrase – ‘single source of the truth’) 

• Data needs met by a tax sensitized approach to ERP configuration 

• Legal entity books maintained by Controllers group 

• Leverage systems to minimize data collection, validation and 

manipulation effort and spend more time on analytics 



27

Enterprise Data Management (EDM) is the process of managing business data throughout its lifecycle across 

the organization. EDM’s main objective is to standardize and reuse accurate data, focusing on the set of data 

that is clearly defined and does not change across departments. 

Governance 

Organization 

Data 

Acquisition 

Create 

Metrics 

Data 

Distribution 

Report 

Operational 

Excellence 

Data 

Maintenance 

Sustain, Analyze, 

Retire 

Process 



Standards & Architecture 

Data Management cannot focus on just the data but must include the use and distribution of the data and how 

its distribution can be cause for error and misinterpretation. 

28

Enterprise Data Management and the Importance to Tax 

Discipline 

Master Data 

Management 

Tax Relevance 

• Tax should be actively involved in defining the data / reporting requirements as part of the 

embedded requirements of any ERP system. 

Chart of accounts, locations, cost centers, profit centers, material types, material groups 

• Data definitions (e.g. Gross Sales) should be agreed upon across the organization and posted to a 

commonly accessible location 

Data Governance 

Data Quality 

Data Archiving and 

Retention 

• Tax should take an active role in the data governance process, including positions in any data centre 

of excellence or advisory council. 

• Tax should establish data management roles within tax, including data owner roles. The individual 

filling these roles should have a deep understanding of both the data at the data element level as 

well as the accounting procedures for creating, editing, and retiring key master data. 

• Tax should help define data quality checks in source systems to help identify degradation of data 

quality in tax data. 

• Tax should define positions/roles that are responsible for data quality (data stewards ). This does 

not necessarily mean the addition of headcount 

• Tax should have defined retention policies and procedures that are included as part of the enterprise 

records management program along with a retention schedule for all relevant records. 

• Tax should work with the corporate records manager and IT to define ‘legal hold’ procedures to 

assure records are retained for future tax audits, appeals and litigation. 

• The tax function should work with IT to define the requirements that will allow IT to define the 

appropriate retention methods and technologies that will support the retrieval requirements imposed 

by tax audits. 



29

Benchmarking Data - Tax Integration with ERP Systems 

Source – TEI 2004-2005 Corporate Tax Department Survey 



30

Contents 

1 

2 

3 

4 

People 

Process 

Technology 

Data 

5 

Controls 

6 

7 

Strategy 

Structure 



31

Best Practices – Controls 

Fundamentals 

• State of the control environment 

• Audit trail and documentation of execution. 

• Effectiveness of controls. 

• Desire to address a broader risk management agenda. 

Key Themes: 

• Involvement of all tax employees in risk management 

• Alignment of accounting and finance to foster a mutual control 

environment 

• Work shifted to interim to increase analytical reviews 

• Evaluation of controls in existing technologies (especially 

spreadsheets) and alternative tools to produce “execution evidence” 



32

Components of Best in Class–Controls 

“Top down” rather than “bottoms up” approach to internal controls 

Controls embedded into technology and processes 

Workload shifted to interim to increase time for analytics 

Tax and finance aligned with formal 2-way communication process 

Focus on ETR calculations rather than “hard close” 

FP&A or Finance assumes controls over legal entity forecasts 

Finance professional assigned to align with tax / review technical memos 

Spreadsheets and manual touches of data minimized 



33

Components of Best in Class–Controls continued 

Detailed process documentation maintained 

Tax accounting silo eliminated through integration with all of tax 

Increased focus on contemporaneous documentation 

Best practices in audit defenses adopted to shorten cycles 

Increase management and controls over global compliance 

Accounting staff in international locations trained on tax accounting issues 

Accountability for keeping current spread throughout tax function 

Increase utilization of internal audit 

Documentation of historical positions maintained 



34

Defining Tax Risk 

Specific 

Transactional 

• Business driven transactions (e.g., 

acquisition/disposal/ reorganisations/ tax based 

planning) 

• Positions taken–and correct implementation of 

what is agreed 

Operational 

• Operational side of business doing things that impact 

on tax position (e.g., transfer pricing or setting up new 

overseas business) 

Compliance 

• Any area where tax returns have to be made to 

authorities (e.g., Corporate Income Tax returns, VAT 

returns, Payroll Tax, Withholding Tax, Customs duties) 

Financial accounting 

• Errors in accounting for taxes 

• Inappropriate entries being reflected in tax accounts 

• Incorrect disclosure of taxes in statutory accounts 

• Sarbanes-Oxley requirements 



Generic 

Portfolio 

• Derived from previous risk profiles 

• Individual tax risk may be within limits, but overall 

portfolio of risk may not (e.g., too many 

aggressive positions taken) 

Management 

• Lack of resources and /or appropriate skills for 

tax 

Reputational 

• Underpins all other tax risk types 

– Impact on tax department/business 

if/when tax affairs become public 

knowledge 

– How would public react if media were 

to address company’s tax position 

– Is company prepared to take case to 

court 

35

Contents 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

People 

Process 

Technology 

Data 

Controls 

6 

Strategy 

7 

Structure 



36

Best Practices – Strategy 

Fundamentals 

• Is there a comprehensive Tax function strategy document 

• Are all Tax personnel clear on the top priorities for the year 

• Is Tax strategy reviewed and approved by the Board 

Key Themes: 

• Financial reporting impact fully explored when evaluating tax planning 

opportunities 

• Define departmental objectives and establish benchmarks / KPI’s 

• 3 - 5 year legal entity tax rate projection models maintained 

• Tax department goals integrated with business strategy 

• Tax department Strategic Plan documented and updated annually 

• Audit Committee or full Board review and approval of the Tax 

Strategic plan 



37

Tax Process - Communicate Issues to Management 

Typical Tax Organization 

TODAY 

• Tax director is not a regular and 

active member of corporate strategic 

or operational planning teams 

• Tax employees are not trained in 

consultative skills which can facilitate 

communication with users and 

suppliers of tax information and 

enhance visibility of department 

• Tax director and managers have 

minimal communication with 

management above controller-level 

• Tax director does not meet with 

peers business units and IT 

Tomorrow’s 

Best Practices 

Tax Organization 

Senior tax officer should be a vice 

president, reporting to the CFO 

Actively involve tax VP in strategic and 

operational planning sessions 

Hold regularly scheduled meetings 

between tax VP, senior management 

and finance department counterparts 

to discuss current business and tax 

issues and strategies 



38

Contents 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

People 

Process 

Technology 

Data 

Controls 

7 

6 

Strategy 

Structure 



39

Best Practices - Structure 

Key Themes: 

Fundamentals 

• Historical focus specialization around a particular discipline 

(i.e. international, state & federal) 

• Future focus specialization around key tax function 

deliverables (tax accounting, planning, compliance, defense) 

• Stronger alignment of Tax function and business units fosters interaction and 

discussion of business changes or emerging issues. 

• Position Tax leadership to focus on most important tax related matters and 

unlock value to organization 

• Clear staff roles, performance measurements and workloads 

• Increased leverage to assure development and adequate review 

• Groom tax resources to understand the organization from a holistic 

perspective (new products/services, growth strategies, operating and capital 

decisions, etc.) and develop an inherent planning role within tax 

• Elimination of “silos” within tax -- open dialogue and communication within tax 

to address current issues and open items 



40

Internal Communication 

Best in Class Tax Departments: 

• Have regularly scheduled meetings 

with CFO 

• Have well-established relationships with 

CEO and CFO’s at all business units 

• Update full Board or Audit Committee on 

relevant tax matters periodically. 

• Maintain documented tax strategy aligned 

with overall business strategy 

New Law & 

Accounting 

Pronouncements 

Transactions 

& Changes in 

the Business 

Tax Accounting 

Compliance 

Return 

to Provision 

Required Skill Set - Senior Tax Executive 

Tax Audits 

Planning 

US Foreign 

• Relationship building 

• Communicate with impact to C-Suite level executives 

• Strategic thinker 

• Good listener–empathy 



41

Best Practices - Global Organization Structure for Tax Accounting 

Key Themes by Enabler: 

• Structure - Carve up the Globe into Tier I, II and III jurisdictions to better manage materiality and 

resource allocation. 

• Process - Regardless of Tier assignment – always focus on mergers, acquisitions, JV’s and divestitures. 

Purchase accounting and related deferred taxes are a major source of material weaknesses in Tax. 

• People - Theatre based FAS109 skills to manage the quality of foreign provision data 

- Report into the US Tax Function – not the local Controllers Group 

- Role requires FAS109 skills and sound knowledge of local tax accounting provisions for Tier I 

jurisdictions. 

- Outsource technical review in Tier I and II jurisdictions as risk dictates. 

• Structure - Shared Service Centers (SSC) & Off-Shoring – most MNC’s have experienced limited 

success in leveraging SSC’s for tax accounting but you may get pressure to do so. 

• Technology - Must leverage emerging technology for foreign provision data collection – web based tax 

reporting packages provide speed and standardization. 

• People / Process – Global Tax Accounting Training 

- Tax Accounting Manuals are becoming more prevalent. 

- Some FAS109 software products have embedded technical training for foreign users (Longview) 



42

Russell Fincher – Director, National Tax Function Effectiveness 

Russell Fincher is a Director with the National Tax Function Effectiveness Practice at Pricewaterhouse 

Coopers, LLP (PWC). The Tax Function Effectiveness Practice provides tax operational process 

improvement and tax function optimization consulting services to corporate clients. 

With more than 15 years of experience in technology, process, tax and accounting matters, Mr. Fincher has 

advised companies across a range of industries, including manufacturing, consumer business, technology, 

and financial services. He brings a multidisciplinary approach to his clients and has led significant tax 

process improvement integrations and tax system integrations with various enterprise resource planning 

(ERP) and business process management (BPM) systems (e.g., SAP, J.D. Edwards, PeopleSoft, Oracle); 

managed custom tax application development initiatives; and led Sarbanes-Oxley tax documentation and 

remediation projects. Mr. Fincher also has deep experience in database management, data/record 

retention, and statistical sampling. 

Prior to joining PWC, he established the tax operation service offering at Alvarez & Marsal Taxand. He 

served in regional and national roles a another Big 4 firm where he focused on tax operational performance 

improvement initiatives and managed the Southeast region's tax vendor relationship. 

Mr. Fincher earned a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Georgia and his master's 

degree in Business Administration, with concentrations in Finance and Computer Information Systems, from 

Georgia State University. 

Phone: (678) 419-1407 

Fax: (813) 342-4526 

E-mail: russell.fincher@us.pwc.com 



43

John Martin – Tax Partner, PwC Kansas City 

John is a Tax Partner in the Kansas City office of PwC where he serves as an industry engagement partner. 

In this role, John has introduced his clients to PwC's Tax Function Effectiveness Practice and is also a part 

of PwC's Tax Accounting & Controls Solutions network. 

With more than 25 years of experience, John has advised large multi-national companies across a range of 

industries, including retail and consumer products, industrial products, and aerospace and defense. John's 

areas of expertise include income tax accounting, accounting methods and corporate tax consulting. 

John graduated magna cum laude from Kansas State University where he majored in accounting and 

finance. John is a licensed CPA, and a member of the American Society of CPA's, the Missouri Society of 

CPA's and the Kansas Society of CPA's. 

Phone: (816) 218-1778 

Fax: (813) 375-5457 

E-mail: john.c.martin@us.pwc.com 



44

2008 0326 PPT_-_Best_Practices.pdf - Tax Executives Institute, Inc.

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