Recap | Tax2Tech 2023

On Thursday last week, Germany's TaxTech innovators met as part of the Tax2Tech "family reunion". 120 people. Concentrated tax and technology expertise.

Hosted in the pleasant premises of Ride Capital, blessed with wonderful views over the Spree, there were two presentations paired with panel discussions at Haus Watergate. The topic - unsurprisingly - was artificial intelligence.

Let's go

After introductory words on Tax2Tech by the two well-known faces of the scene Christoph Plantener and Melchior Neumann, KPMG partner Christian Stender kicked off the event with a presentation and practical insights into Generative AI (GenAI). This gave a small insight into the GenAI tools and the development status of KPMG.

Dive deep

Afterwards, the first discussion took place around the topics of artificial intelligence, algorithms and data.

Also represented in the discussion was taxy.io, which is certainly one of the most watched start-ups in Germany lately. The reason: the tax language model in connection with publishing content from ottoschmidt Verlag.

Afterwards, a second discussion - in a different composition - dealt with the extent to which the topics discussed affect those working in the field.

The job profile will change, certainly. From the creator of tax law output to the auditor of the same. This was a recurring theme throughout the day.

So it is becoming more efficient. This leads to the Big Fourhaving to ask themselves how they will charge in the future. Because charging according to time units will probably reduce profits ;-)

In the traditional law firms, however, they are not affected by this accounting problem for the time being. Too many are busy with the tasks that have proliferated in recent years and the deadlines that have been set.

But whether the majority of these firms can profit from the new developments remains to be seen. This requires the will to develop further, overall commitment and also employees who can apply these advantages at all. And the client base is also crucial. A more narrow, focused client base might be part of the future.

For many existing, old law firms, however, these issues will probably no longer play a role on the fringes of the future. But for all those who want to survive in the future, they will have to deal with them. At Tax2Tech, people want to deal with it and are where they are with their firms for a reason.

History lesson from Hamburg

Which led to the last talk of the day: the development of Taxdoo.

Certainly one of the flagship companies solving a huge problem in eCommerce with a strong product. What is innovative about it is above all the close interlocking of the product team with the internal tax experts. This is the only way to design and implement such a complex software solution for such a complex tax problem.

The End

It was precisely at this intersection between technology and taxation that one found oneself all day. Surrounded by motivated colleagues who all strive for improvement. Without forgetting that we ourselves are operating in a bubble.

But it is important that this bubble exists, because without it, the tax industry would not be where it has evolved to in recent years.

The informal atmosphere at the Spree certainly provided a lot of food for thought, which is now gradually taking root in the fresh minds of the self-proclaimed "young savages" and will not let the hope for a continued interesting future in the tax industry die.

We will find out about these new ideas in a year's time, because the next event is already planned and promises to be even better in its third version.