If you’re like me, your head is already in 2026, even if it’s technically a week away.
There’s always something to plan for in indirect tax. Those new regulations in Bhutan and VAT rate changes in Mexico starting on January 1st are just the start of it.
Still, it would be a mistake to not look back at 2025. With that in mind, here are the top 5 pieces of Fonoa content you should revisit to hit the ground running in 2026.
1. [Blog] The 5 Stages of Tax Tech Maturity
This one is special because the author, Ravi Dhaliwal, Tax Director at Fonoa, has been developing a framework and workshop to help benchmark tax operations. Ravi's a former EY consultant who moved to the tech side, and he's been running this maturity assessment with Fonoa's customers and prospects alike.
The article walks through his exact strategy for bucketing the maturity stages of a tax organization, from manual chaos to AI-driven intelligence.
Here's the thing: you may be surprised where you land when you honestly assess your organization. But that clarity is exactly what you need to build a roadmap for 2026. And if you want the full workshop experience after reading, reach out.
2. [Webinar] The Future of Tax: A Recap of 2030-Ready Strategies
This webinar recaps our first-ever annual conference in London. If you weren't there, you missed Rob van der Woude and Alexander Kobakhidze breaking down what the future of tax operations actually looks like when 100+ countries have real-time reporting mandates.
Next year's conference has already been announced. SYNAPSE 2026 is coming to London, New York, Seattle, and San Francisco. We're building on everything from 2025, but bigger and better, with content covering all the latest trends like AI that's actually practical and how to think about the whole tax lifecycle in 2026.
Watch this webinar to see where we started and what to expect from this year's events. Consider it your preview of what tax leaders need to be thinking about right now.
3. [White paper] The Complete Guide to AI in Indirect Tax
Sure, everyone's talking about AI in tax, but most of the conversation is either too theoretical or too hype-driven.
In this guide, we cut through both, starting with framework thinking. We talk about the types of logic that go into AI, like probabilistic vs. deterministic reasoning, so you can understand how AI fits into the normal logic of, say, a tax engine. That foundation is critical before you start deploying anything.
But the guide also delivers practical value. It includes real use cases, governance frameworks, and an implementation checklist with clear, actionable ways to integrate AI in your indirect tax processes. It covers everything from confidence thresholds to human-in-the-loop workflows to bias testing.
If you're getting questions from leadership about AI strategy (and 45% of tax leaders in our survey said they've gotten multiple requests), this guide covers everything you need to get started.
4. [Webinar] Canva's AI-Powered Tax Transformation
Speaking of practical AI use, this webinar was one of our hottest topics in 2025. We see you wanting more and more real examples of how companies are actually using AI in tax operations, not just talking about it.
Jenny Travis, Canva's Head of Indirect Tax, walked through their entire AI playbook: Set foundations, Automate, Embed, Strategize. But what really stood out was hearing about their custom GPT built specifically to monitor global eCommerce legislation in real time. This isn't off-the-shelf software. This is a tax team that invested in building AI tools that solve their specific problems.
Jenny also got into the hard stuff: governance frameworks, data quality requirements, prompting techniques for accuracy, and how they balance automation with human oversight. If you're wondering what "AI in tax" looks like beyond the buzzwords, this is it.
5. [Customer story] Limehome’s e-invoicing success
Limehome is a fantastic tech-enabled hospitality company with a tax team that is absolutely smashing it. They went from fragmented local invoicing providers to a single global platform with Fonoa and saved approximately 1,000 hours per year while hitting a 99.9% invoice acceptance rate.
What makes this story compelling isn't just the numbers (though eliminating 3,600+ manual invoice reviews annually is impressive). It's the operational transformation. Limehome's payments team used to joke they should rename themselves the "Invoicing Team" because they spent so much time firefighting invoicing issues. With Fonoa, they got their nights and weekends back.
They're now live with e-invoicing compliance in 5 markets and can launch new countries in two weeks instead of months. Get a little inspiration from them before you write your own New Year’s resolutions.
On to 2026
If you made it this far, you're clearly serious about making 2026 your year for tax transformation. The regulatory environment isn't slowing down. Real-time reporting mandates are expanding. E-invoicing requirements are getting more complex. And AI is moving from "interesting" to "necessary."
You now have a reading list that will get you caught up and ready to lead.
What's coming in 2026? More webinars diving into practical implementations. More thought leadership from tax professionals who are doing the work, not just theorizing about it. And of course, SYNAPSE, where you can meet the people behind these stories and learn from the tax leaders who are defining what "good" looks like.
Hope to see you there.
