ERP Today recently covered the tax compliance pressure from three directions: whether ERP systems know enough about tax scope before transformation, how e-invoicing mandates are turning compliance into an architecture test, and how AI is starting to reach tax incentive discovery.
SAPinsider’s new Global Tax Management benchmark report adds the broader market evidence behind those stories. The report, based on a survey of SAPinsider’s global community conducted between February and June 2026, shows tax leaders are not treating compliance as a narrow statutory reporting issue. They are dealing with a more complex operating problem shaped by AI adoption, real-time reporting mandates, fragmented ERP landscapes, tax-sensitized data gaps, and pressure to standardize controls across jurisdictions.
The findings also show why tax is becoming harder to separate from ERP strategy. Modern tax management depends on the quality, consistency, and accessibility of operational data. If tax codes, jurisdictions, product classifications, entity structures, exemptions, customer data, supplier data, and document flows are inconsistent across systems, the organization cannot respond quickly to new mandates, automate compliance with confidence, or use AI responsibly.
Tax Teams Pulled into the AI Agenda
The strongest force shaping tax strategy for 2026–2028 is not a single mandate. It is AI adoption and advancement across the business, cited by 42% of respondents in the SAPinsider report.
That does not mean tax teams are suddenly ready to hand decision-making to AI. It means the enterprise AI agenda has reached tax whether tax functions are prepared or not. Finance, IT, and business leaders are asking how AI can accelerate compliance, reporting, audit preparation, classification, exception handling, and analytics. Tax leaders, in turn, have to decide where AI can be safely applied and what data foundation is needed before those tools can be trusted.
E-invoicing and real-time reporting mandates follow closely, cited by 35% of respondents. That aligns with what ERP Today has been tracking in recent coverage: Tax authorities are moving closer to live transaction flows, which reduces the time available to correct errors after the fact. Compliance is increasingly happening at the point of transaction, not at the end of a reporting cycle.
Business growth, supply chain restructuring, and regulatory or tariff volatility each registered at 27%, reinforcing the same point. Tax has become a moving target because the business keeps moving. New markets, new legal entities, supplier shifts, trade changes, and digital reporting mandates all change what tax systems need to know.
Foundation Is Still the Constraint
The top two operational challenges cited by 37% of respondents are keeping pace with country-level regulatory changes and tax-sensitized data quality and integration. Technology limitations and legacy tools follow at 36%, while fragmented ERP landscapes, control and governance consistency, and audit management and documentation each appear as significant barriers.
That combination tells a clear story. Tax teams do not only need better reporting outputs. They need better input structures. A tax engine, e-invoicing platform, analytics layer, or AI assistant can only work with the business data it receives. If that data is incomplete, inconsistent, poorly governed, or spread across multiple ERP environments, the technology layer inherits the problem.
This is why tax modernization often becomes harder than a compliance project appears on paper. The work touches master data ownership, global process templates, document management, controls, system integration, audit evidence, and regulatory change management. Tax leaders can define the requirement, but IT and finance have to help build the architecture that makes it repeatable.
Analysis
What this means: Tax compliance depends on ERP data discipline. SAPinsider’s report shows tax-sensitized data quality and integration sit alongside country-level regulatory change as the leading operational challenge for tax teams. ERP leaders should treat tax codes, jurisdiction mappings, product classifications, customer data, supplier data, and document flows as part of the compliance control environment, not as back-office configuration details.
Automation Comes Before Ambition
SAPinsider’s data suggests that organizations understand the sequencing problem.
The top strategic priority for the next 24 months is automating high-volume processes, cited by 41% of respondents. Standardizing processes with global templates follows at 39%, and master data remediation and ownership comes next at 35%.
Tax teams are not ignoring AI, advanced analytics, Pillar Two, or e-invoicing. They are trying to build the base layer first. High-volume process automation reduces manual work. Global templates reduce local variation. Master data ownership gives teams a better chance of keeping tax-sensitive fields accurate as business structures change.
AI and advanced analytics still rank strongly, at 33%, but they sit behind automation, standardization, and data remediation. Tax teams appear to recognize that AI can amplify a mature operating model, but it cannot repair one that lacks consistent process and data governance.
Analysis
What this means: Automation and standardization will decide how fast tax teams can respond. The strongest near-term priorities in the report are automating high-volume processes, standardizing global templates, and remediating master data ownership. Finance and IT leaders can use tax modernization programs to reduce local variation before adding more advanced analytics, AI, or reporting tools.
SAP as the Architecture Center
Half of respondents say they have SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics in scope for tax and compliance for the next 24 months. SAP Document and Reporting Compliance is in scope for 42%, while SAP Business Technology Platform is in scope for 34%.
That shows tax teams are not only looking for standalone compliance tools. They are looking for an architecture that connects core ERP data, statutory reporting, e-invoicing, analytics, integration, and third-party tax engines without creating another layer of fragmentation.
The third-party tax engine data points in the same direction. Vertex and Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE each show 37% adoption among respondents, followed by a broader field of tax, e-invoicing, and compliance specialists. But the report also shows a meaningful share of respondents are not using, or are not sure whether they are using, a third-party tax engine.
That uncertainty is a warning sign for ERP leaders. Tax technology stacks have to be rationalized and governed before they can support faster regulatory response, AI-assisted compliance, or real-time reporting. A company cannot modernize global tax management if it does not have a clear view of which systems determine tax, which systems report it, and which teams own the data in between.
Analysis
What this means: SAP tax architecture is becoming more platform-driven. The focus on SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics, SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, and SAP BTP shows tax teams want compliance capabilities connected to the ERP core rather than scattered across disconnected tools. SAP customers who use the next 24 months to clarify which tax capabilities belong in the core, which require third-party engines, and how governance will work across both will be better prepared for future modernization initiatives.
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