How a global AI tech stack provider cut $24M+ in tax risk and costs with automated tax from validation to return filing

Published
Jul 3, 2025
Last update
Jul 7, 2025
Industry
Technology services, AI cloud technology, infrastructure
Region
Global (U.S., EU, LATAM, Middle East)
Solutions
Tax calculation
Tax returns
Tax ID validation

$14.6M

under-collected VAT prevented

$9.3M

reduced tax exposure

$316K

headcount savings

Disjointed tax ops created risk and slowed expansion

This Fonoa customer is the holding group for several fast-scaling technology businesses operating in AI cloud infrastructure, data labeling, edtech, and autonomous systems. With legal entities across the U.S. and Europe, and sales happening globally, compliance obligations quickly grew—which led to fragmented indirect tax operations.

Each business unit had its own way of calculating tax, validating customer IDs.There was no unified approach to determine whether a transaction was B2B or B2C, or to check if tax IDs were valid. In many cases, validation was skipped to avoid slowing down onboarding.

Without consistent controls, the group faced real financial exposure. Missing ID validation, incorrect tax treatment, and manual return processes made it difficult to stay compliant as they expanded into new markets.

End-to-end tax automation with a seamless implementation

To scale indirect tax operations without overloading internal teams, the company implemented several solutions from the Fonoa platform: Lookup, Tax Engine, and Returns.

The ultimate goal is that each business unit is integrated with Fonoa according to its needs—upstream or downstream of their central ERP—to enable accurate tax operations from ID validation and tax determination to returns filing.

Lookup eliminates invalid tax ID errors by automating the validation of customer tax IDs at onboarding and transaction time

Tax Engine enables real-time tax determination across both supported and emerging markets, reducing risk of misclassification and over-/under-collection

Returns cuts manual preparation time in half, improving internal efficiency and accuracy in jurisdictions like the Netherlands, Finland, and Mexico

The overall implementation was seamless, with Lookup integrated in two weeks and tax engines up and running 

“The onboarding with Fonoa has been exceptional. There wasn’t a single delay on their end—our tax engine was up and running in under a month. It’s hands down the best onboarding experience we’ve had with any tech, tax, or finance provider.”
— Anonymous Tax Leader 

With one platform powering validation, calculation, and reporting, the tax and finance teams can finally operate from a single source of truth.

$24M+ in savings and efficiency gains across 400+ filings per year

Fonoa is helping the company transform its indirect tax function from manual and fragmented to scalable and automated—without requiring an internal rebuild.

This has enabled the tax team to support the company’s wider goals:

  • Faster expansion into new markets without needing custom tax workarounds
  • Significant uplift in data quality, enabling better reporting, fewer errors, and greater audit readiness
  • One integrated platform, reducing vendor sprawl and enabling centralized tax visibility across the business

Fonoa validated with the customer that they expect the impact on the business to be over $24M in return on investment within 3 years:

  • $14.6M in potential VAT under-collection prevented, thanks to upstream tax ID validation
  • $9.3M in reduced tax exposure, due to improved accuracy in global tax determination
  • $316K in FTE savings from halving return preparation time across 400+ filings per year

When factoring in improved compliance, time saved, the company’s actual return will likely extend even further than this initial projection.

With Fonoa, indirect tax became something the business could scale with—not work around.

No items found.

Fonoa in numbers

The industry leading experience

190+

Jurisdictions Supported

Calculate taxes accurately in 190+ countries and U.S. states with Fonoa’s comprehensive tax engine.

100+

Countries Covered

Validate VAT, GST, and other tax IDs instantly across 100+ countries using official government databases.

1M+

Sellers Onboarded

Fonoa powers e-invoicing solutions for 1M+ sellers on leading global marketplaces.

500M

Transactions Processed Annually

Ensure real-time tax compliance with 500M transactions processed every year.

Privacy Policy Cookie Policy