AI can help tax practitioners explore issues, structure analysis and identify sources. The strongest results come when it supports professional judgement rather than replacing it. AI is already part...
AI is helping junior tax practitioners work faster and take on more complex tasks. But reducing the difficult parts of tax work may also affect how professional judgement develops. Junior practitioners...
AI is changing how junior tax practitioners research and learn. The challenge is ensuring they can check sources, question conclusions and understand how an answer has been reached. AI has made tax knowledge...
AI Is Already Embedded in Tax Work AI is already inside the tax team. It is in the first draft of the client email, the research summary, the document review, the knowledge search, the memo structure...
Loyalty starts long before someone resigns The resignation rarely starts on the day someone hands in their notice. In tax, it often starts much earlier: another late night before a deadline, another...
Heads of Tax are under growing pressure and it’s not easing any time soon.
Workloads are increasing, compliance is becoming more complex, and data demands are intensifying. Yet resources are not keeping pace. PwC research shows that half of tax leaders expect headcount to remain unchanged, while nearly 59% anticipate flat or reduced budgets.
At the same time, HMRC is moving rapidly towards a digital-first model. Its Transformation Roadmap aims for 90% of interactions to be digital by 2030, fundamentally changing how tax teams operate.
This isn’t a short-term squeeze. It’s a structural shift. The expectation is no longer that tax teams will simply manage the pressure, but that they will adapt to it.
When demand rises, the instinct is often to push teams to do more. But that approach has limits. It increases risk, creates burnout, and rarely delivers sustainable gains.
The more effective response is to rethink how the function operates.
Leading tax teams are stepping back and asking a simple but powerful question: what work actually requires expert judgement and what doesn’t?
From there, they are redesigning their operating model. Routine, repeatable tasks are being standardised and, where possible, centralised. More complex, judgement-led work is prioritised for experienced professionals.
This shift isn’t just about efficiency. It’s about protecting the time and focus of your most valuable people.
One of the biggest drains on tax teams isn’t visible in workload plans or headcount models. It sits beneath the surface, in rework, poor data quality and fragmented processes.
You often see it most clearly during HMRC enquiries. Requests for large volumes of data expose how much time is spent pulling information together, correcting inconsistencies and retracing steps.
What looks like “workload pressure” is often process friction.
The most effective teams don’t just respond faster. They fix the root cause. They focus on improving data earlier in the process ensuring it is accurate, consistent and “tax-ready” from the outset.
That single shift can remove hours of downstream effort that would otherwise go unnoticed but add up quickly.
There’s no shortage of technology available to tax teams. But many transformations fall short because the fundamentals aren’t in place.
Tools are layered onto processes that are already inefficient. Data is inconsistent or incomplete. The result is added complexity, not reduced workload.
A more effective approach is disciplined and phased.
Start by simplifying how work is done and then focus on improving data quality. Only then does automation begin to deliver meaningful results.
AI is increasingly part of this journey, with the vast majority of tax professionals already using or planning to use it based on our latest findings. But the real consideration isn’t just speed, it’s trust.
In a regulated environment, outputs must be defensible. That means relying on tools and content that are grounded in authoritative, verifiable sources.
Efficiency isn’t just driven internally. A significant portion of workload comes from interactions with HMRC.
Under the co-operative compliance framework, HMRC places a clear emphasis on transparency, timely communication and strong governance. Organisations that demonstrate these qualities are rewarded with reduced scrutiny.
For large businesses, this matters. HMRC is investigating around half of them at any given time.
What differentiates high-performing tax teams is not just technical accuracy, but how they engage. Clear audit trails, well-structured documentation and proactive communication can significantly reduce follow-up queries.
In that sense, compliance becomes more than a requirement. It becomes a way to actively reduce workload.
Even when improvements are made, many tax teams struggle to demonstrate their impact.
Without clear measurement, efficiency gains remain anecdotal and investment becomes harder to justify.
The teams making real progress are those that track a small number of meaningful metrics. They look at how long tasks take, how often work is repeated, and where errors occur.
This creates something powerful: visibility.
It allows leaders to connect operational improvements directly to outcomes — reduced cost, lower risk and increased capacity. And it gives them a stronger platform to secure future investment.
The pressure on tax functions isn’t going away. If anything, it will continue to increase.
The leaders who navigate this successfully won’t be the ones who ask their teams to do more. They’ll be the ones who change how the work gets done.
They’ll simplify processes, improve data at source and apply technology with intent, not as a quick fix, but as part of a broader redesign.
Because ultimately, doing more with less isn’t about working faster.
It’s about building a system that requires less effort in the first place.
See Tolley’s AI tools, developed for in-house professionals