Success Story – Verisk Analytics

Challenge

Compared to their provision and compliance processes in Corptax, Verisk Analytics’ global CbC reporting process was “disjointed and siloed.” A single team member handled the entire process offline in a separate tax application, manually sourcing, manipulating, inputting, and verifying a huge volume of data. With no structured process in place, they were compelled to sift through prior year data to replicate the process each year. Additionally, users found the current system unintuitive and slow.

Further, the team knew impending Global Minimum Tax requirements would further complicate their siloed process.

Verisk wanted a solution to address:

• Manual data-handling that ate up valuable time, increased errors, and required a major effort to ensure accuracy.

• A lack of transparency that hindered reviews and audit response. Discrepancies were difficult to identify and correct in advance. For example, Verisk inadvertently excluded relevant items from Unrelated Revenue such as gains and interest income. Furthermore, state taxes were erroneously excluded from the Accrued Taxes total.

• Just one individual knew the intricacies and nuances of the full process. As Verisk’s International Assistant Tax Manager said, “if the process owner won the lottery, we’d be in a difficult situation.” Documentation and standardization were needed to establish continuity.

Solution

Verisk added CSC Corptax^® BEPS CbCR to their Corptax Single Solution suite of products. In Verisk’s words, “the BEPS module would alleviate our pain points. We would have one database containing the data for domestic, international, and CbC reporting.” Additionally, the Corptax CbCR module would facilitate traceability to the book amounts used in their tax return with all data housed in one system.

Verisk also engaged CSC Corptax^® Professional Services to:

• Review the existing process to identify and resolve inconsistencies and inefficiencies

• Assist in setting up review processes using CSC Corptax^® Office

• Introduce analytics to visualize and optimize BEPS CbC reporting

• Help ensure public disclosures reflect the company’s perspective

• Create a comprehensive guide to document the process for future users

Verisk has since added Corptax Office POV reports to quickly pull data from CbCR Table 1 and Table 2 to ensure that data in Corptax matched data in their source files. The team is enhancing this effort by creating Alteryx workflows to facilitate the reconciliation process.

Results

Now, instead of spending weeks mining prior-year data and reports to substantiate work done in the past, Verisk pulls domestic and international compliance data into BEPS prep in mere seconds. By solving their pain points, Verisk estimates they complete CbCR in 20-30% less time. They’ve also realized significant efficiencies using POV reports to quickly populate Table 1 and Table 2 data into prepared reconciliation models.

Full documentation created with the help of Professional Services furnishes complete transparency and simplifies the review process at all levels. Verisk spots potential issues early, understands the data they need to collect, and knows exactly where to find it.

By leveraging the Corptax BEPS module, Verisk can:

• Better review the process from start to finish, rather than offline with one person

• Quickly get to the root of discrepancies

• More effectively evaluate tax positions and parameters for the BEPS calculation

• Respond quickly to external auditors with complete support

• Automate and document the process, so others can seamlessly step in

• Be well prepared for BEPS Pillar 2 compliance

Though results were always reviewed at the senior level, the introduction of data analytics and a structured process helps Verisk provide management with concise and actionable information they can review quickly and effectively.

Thrilled with the results their Corptax BEPS module helps them deliver, Verisk is taking the concepts they learned and applying them to Pillar Two readiness by implementing the CSC Corptax^® Global Minimum Tax module.