By Evádne Bronkhorst
The recent TPMinds Africa conference, held from 24-25 March 2026 in Johannesburg, highlighted a pervasive and potentially risky perception: that tax is the sole responsibility of internal finance or tax teams.
The reality is that in today’s regulatory climate, businesses can no longer treat tax as a localised finance function that simply ticks the compliance box. More importantly, internal tax and finance teams shouldn’t operate in silos or independently from operations teams.
Business leaders must view tax as a dynamic, strategic cost component that dictates the ability of a business to continue operating.
Beyond back-office compliance
Historically, business units operated with a “deal first” mentality, prioritising sales and supply chain efficiency, with little thought given to the tax implications. The tax departments that oversaw each business unit would then do the back-office admin to report the results.
However, recent developments from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) have fundamentally shifted tax from a back-office compliance function to a strategic, boardroom-level imperative.
The convergence of the OECD’s Pillar Two (Global Minimum Tax) and digitally-driven tax 3.0 enforcement from SARS means tax is now a direct cost constraint affecting operational structure, cash flow, and competitiveness, making tax compliance more nuanced.
Under OECD Pillar Two and increased transparency and digital reporting requirements from SARS, tax compliance is no longer a mere historical reporting exercise; it’s a real-time operational challenge.
Tax as a strategic cost component
When a warehouse is relocated to another country or a procurement lead renegotiates a cross-border contract, this doesn’t only result in operational changes; it could also trigger tax obligations.
If business units operate in silos, the business risks massive leakages and unforeseen costs that can erode the bottom line and lead to potential fines and other operational risks.
For example, if the base used for transfer pricing doesn’t reconcile with the base used for customs valuations, the result isn’t just an admin headache; it’s a red flag for revenue authorities and a potential double-taxation trap.
Failure to integrate data creates reporting gaps that revenue authorities are now expertly trained to exploit, particularly in cross-border trade, as mutual agreements between countries have led to better data sharing, giving tax authorities a globalised view of business operations.
In severe cases, non-compliance can land businesses in difficult positions, which can lead to lost revenue and negatively impact relationships with customers and suppliers, resulting in reputational damage.
In a worst-case scenario, this eventuality could lead a business down the path of business rescue, which means it’s not something to be taken lightly.
As such, the lack of communication between those responsible for tax functions and operational business units is a major risk to the business.
The power of reconciliation
To survive and thrive, businesses require tighter integration between departments tasked with different tax types. Critically, business leaders must stop viewing tax as a percentage of profit and start viewing it as an integrated cost of doing business.
The golden thread of modern tax management is the ability to reconcile disparate bases. You cannot use a single, static basis to determine all tax liabilities because the requirements differ across tax types – you must be able to reconcile them.
A business that can reconcile its transfer pricing benchmarks with its indirect tax reporting creates a single version of the truth that does more than satisfy SARS; it provides leadership with an accurate map of where capital is being consumed.
The Tax Control Framework solution
The solution to integrated tax reporting is a Tax Control Framework (TCF) that takes a whole-of-business view.
A TCF doesn’t have to be complicated; it just has to be functional and grounded in the transaction lifecycle that aims to:
- Identify every key tax trigger from the moment a deal is conceived to the final payment
- Determine which business units are involved at each stage
- Clearly define the documents required and which controls are in place to ensure compliance at every milestone
For businesses that do not have the luxury of a dedicated in-house tax department, the solution lies in appointing an internal tax champion.
This individual must serve as the custodian of the TCF process, ensuring that every step is adhered to by the various departments involved. In so doing, they act as the bridge between the operational business units and external tax advisors and auditors.
Creating operational resilience
As the pace of regulatory changes renders a wait-and-see approach ineffectual, business leaders must take steps to identify any compliance gaps and address them with urgency.
Working with tax advisors to design a framework tailored to the specific operational footprint of a business, and educating non-tax staff across procurement, sales, and operations on the tax implications of their daily decisions, can help reduce the risk of non-compliance.
This level of tax integration across departments and operations has become mission-critical to sustain operations. By breaking down the barriers between finance, operations, and tax teams, businesses can ensure that their tax strategy supports their business strategy, rather than introducing unnecessary risks.
Evádne Bronkhorst is Associate Director: Tax Consulting at Forvis Mazars in South Africa
