Over the past few weeks, I met with businesses in Paris, Stockholm, and Prague. One runs tax at a scale-up that [specific growth detail]. The other works at a company with decades of history and the legacy systems to match. I expected two very different conversations. Both times, I heard the same 5 questions.
Five tax technology questions every business faces
Both teams came with the same list:
- Do we have the data we need, and can we trust it?
- How can technology help us?
- How does any new technology we consider integrate with the systems we already run?
- Will this technology scale as we grow?
- Can the technology meet the requirements that are coming next?
Maturity doesn't remove these questions. It changes when you face them and how much the answers cost. That timing is where the two groups part ways.
Scale-up tax teams face these questions early, when answers are cheap
A scale-up enters new markets faster than a tax team can hire, and each country brings its own registration, invoicing, and reporting rules. So the questions arrive early.
With no legacy systems to unpick, a scale-up has a real advantage. The risk is that choices a team makes for speed today can become constraints tomorrow. Data and integration decisions cost little to get right at the start and a lot to reverse later.
Established tax teams face them late, when answers are costly
Established businesses meet the same questions after decades of growth. They built tax processes market by market and system by system, and the fragmentation was frustrating but workable.
It's much harder to sustain now. E-invoicing, digital reporting, and real-time VAT requirements keep arriving, each with its own formats, timelines, and platforms. France went live in September. Spain has just fixed its B2B dates for 2027 and 2028. An approach built around one rule per country won't stretch to the next wave, and every new mandate adds cost to a model that's already at its limit.
Strong tax foundations matter at every stage of growth
Requirements aren't slowing down, so both groups reach the same conclusion from opposite directions. The scale-up wants to avoid fragmentation, and the established business needs to escape it.
Whether you're early or late matters less than whether your foundations can absorb what comes next.
4 checks to assess your tax technology readiness
The 4 checks below map to the first 4 questions. Look beyond the next deadline and ask:
- Data: Is transaction data complete, consistent, and available where tax needs it?
- Approach: Do tax calculation, e-invoicing, and reporting work together, or as separate projects?
- Integration: Does it connect cleanly to your ERP and billing systems? Is every country a new integration or a configuration exercise?
- Scalability: Can you add a new country or requirement without a rebuild?
The fifth question answers itself once the other 4 are settled. If any check is unclear, start there.
Conversations with tax teams shape how we build tax technology, and the same 5 questions came up in every one of them.
Are your tax foundations ready for the next wave of requirements? Speak to a Fonoa expert
