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Adobe Transforms Their Global Indirect Tax Process with ONESOURCE Determination

Key Takeaways

• Adobe recognized the need for improved control over indirect tax processes due to inefficiencies caused by multiple disparate tax systems and the complexities of evolving tax regulations.

• Under Brian Gardner's leadership, Adobe transitioned to ONESOURCE Determination, significantly reducing the time for sales tax returns from two weeks to just 30 minutes while also achieving compliance with new EU VAT regulations.

• The implementation of ONESOURCE Determination allowed Adobe to cut reliance on IT resources by 95% and enhanced the tax department's ability to present accurate metrics to senior leadership, increasing its strategic value within the organization.

Learn how Adobe turned a “perfect storm” of tax challenges into an opportunity to leverage ONESOURCE Determination™ from Thomson Reuters and achieved total control over their worldwide indirect tax process.

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As a multinational software company operating amidst a constantly evolving global tax and e-commerce landscape, Brian Gardner, Adobe’s Director of Global Indirect Tax, knew the company needed more control over its indirect tax processes.

With numerous spreadsheets and millions of line items, one wrong input could result in a domino effect of inaccuracies. Further, the company’s three disparate tax systems for US, international and e-commerce related taxes were draining resources, wasting time and inefficient. Due to these unstandardized processes, sales tax returns were taking the tax department nearly two weeks to complete. With the indirect tax system configurations heavily reliant on IT resources, Adobe’s IT director set a goal to remove 40% of this customization from SAP.

Perhaps the most significant driver for an indirect tax process overhaul, however, was the European Union’s tax jurisdiction changes for e-commerce companies, effective January 1, 2015. Instead of paying VAT in the supplier country, it became payable where the customer resides. That meant Adobe had to apply the local VAT rate in any of the 28 European countries based on where their customers were located.

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Under Brian’s leadership, the tax department at Adobe began developing a business case for moving to a single, global platform for managing indirect tax. They knew they needed to understand their global environment and take a deep look at their current indirect tax processes to expose what was and what wasn’t working.

After delving into their current processes and evaluating their options, the choice was clear. ONESOURCE Determination was the only solution that could meet their compliance needs and address the growing complexity of sales and use tax, VAT, GST, and industry and country-specific tax and business requirements around the world.

After implementing ONESOURCE Determination, Adobe’s tax department significantly reduced the risks associated with indirect tax calculation, reporting, and compliance by achieving total control over their indirect tax process.

Adobe was able to be in complete compliance once the 2015 regulations went into effect – something that would not have been attainable under their previous processes.

When it came to reducing reliance on the company’s IT resources, the move to ONESOURCE more than doubled the IT director’s original objective, which was to remove 40% of customization from SAP. The end result was a reduction of ABAP coding / SAP customizations related to tax by 95%.

A streamlined and standardized indirect tax process gave way to major time savings as well. The two weeks it had previously taken to complete sales tax returns was reduced to just 30 minutes with ONESOURCE Determination. The significant time savings allowed the tax department to focus more on tax strategy and analysis, giving many individuals a chance to evolve and expand their roles.

With a much firmer grasp on how much tax was paid in specific countries, Adobe’s tax department was able to present accurate metrics in confidence to senior leadership – a benefit that elevated the value of the tax department as a whole.

Today, Adobe’s tax department is thriving. Future plans include expanding the use of ONESOURCE in more tax applications around the world.

Founded in December 1982 by Charles Geschke and John Warnock, Adobe gives everyone — from emerging artists to global brands — everything they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences. Visit adobe.com for more information.

Learn how Adobe turned a “perfect storm” of tax challenges into an opportunity to leverage ONESOURCE Determination from Thomson Reuters and achieved total control over their worldwide indirect tax process.

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