Automate, Anticipate, and Jumpstart: Transforming Your Tax Function with Technology

Indonesia's tax landscape is rapidly changing. With the full deployment of CoreTax in 2025, the Directorate General of Taxes (DGT) has made a major change toward a real-time, technology-driven approach. However, this is not simply a system upgrade. It foreshadows a larger transition in which data, not just documents, becomes the foundation of tax compliance.

It is designed that the DGT do more than just collect data; they also monitor conduct. That means Indonesian businesses must examine their tax management practices, not just for filing purposes, but also for strategy, risk mitigation, and resilience.

CoreTax: The Future is Real-Time

CoreTax consolidates various type of taxes, information, and business process. These include VAT, income tax, withholding, and other taxes, including third-party data, into a single unified platform. It automatically cross-checks the data, identifies mismatches, and tracks submissions in real time. Errors that used to take months to unearth can now generate alerts in minutes. As a result, the usual monthly compliance cycle will be replaced by ongoing oversight. In this new era, slow or laborious operations are not only inefficient, but also dangerous.

Where Are You on the Maturity Curve?

Every company's tax function reaches a particular level of maturity. It is not just about scale, but also about structure, consistency, and how tax fits into your organization.

The tax function of a company often follows four phases to ensure tax function efficacy (see Technology-Enabled Tax Compliance; Bianca Kuijper, Todd Cameron, and Zsolt Szatmari; 2024). Such phases consist of reactive, pro-active, progressive, and best-in-class.

At the reactive level, teams are mired in spreadsheets. Data is stored in silos, deadlines cause confusion, and last-minute changes are the norm. Tax is always a step behind. Then there is the Pro-Active level, which includes some automation. Processes are more predictable, and compliance is better managed. However, most insights occur after the event.

Some companies take a more progressive approach. Their systems communicate with one another. Tax information is sent from source to report. Forecasting and scenario planning become feasible. Tax begins to help companies make decisions rather than just explain them.

And at best-in-class standards? Taxation is an essential component of corporate structure. It relates to procurement, pricing, and operations. Issues are detected before they become problems. The data is audit-ready, and the taxes’ function provides value.

Where Are You Now?

To find out, ask yourself:

Do we still copy numbers from emails to Excel?
Do we experience inconsistent tax treatment across teams or regions?
Is our VAT/withholding tax data clean, consolidated, and easy to access?
Does our tax staff prioritize checking reports above advising the business?

If those questions sound familiar, do not worry. That only indicates there is room for improvement. And that is where the opportunity is.

Automation is the Beginning, Not the End

Many companies assume that automation is the ultimate stage of the digital tax revolution. They use robotic process automation (RPA) to replace repetitive processes like data entry, report production, and invoice matching, believing it to be a one-time solution. While this initial step improves efficiency, it is simply the start.

RPA works like a well-trained helper, following precise instructions to complete mechanical operations. It can log onto systems, collect reports, create spreadsheets, and move data between platforms. However, RPA has apparent limitations: it does not learn, it does not make decisions, and it does not adapt to changes in regulation or business situation. When an unexpected transaction occurs or a new rule is implemented, RPA cannot change unless a human tells it to.

This is why RPA is commonly referred to as the gateway to Artificial Intelligence (AI). It handles one aspect of automation, but not adaptability. In contrast, genuine AI allows computers to comprehend context, detect abnormalities, and recommend actions. AI can interpret unstructured data, such as invoice descriptions or intercompany contracts, and classify it for tax purposes. It can examine transaction trends and predict risks.

As a result, the future tax professional must transition away from manual verification and toward technological stewardship, curating, overseeing, and understanding AI outputs rather than manually preparing reports. As governments raise transparency demands and shorten audit periods, the distinction between RPA and AI becomes important.

In summary, automation solves for speed. Intelligence solutions for sustainability. Businesses that focus solely on RPA may enhance throughput but fail to address the larger risks. Those who embrace the entire journey will not only keep up with regulators but also transform their tax function into a forward-thinking business partner.

What Can AI Do?

AI has ushered in a new age for tax practitioners. It does not replace, but rather enables them to perform more quickly, accurately, and strategically. AI can process massive amounts of organized and unstructured data, detect abnormalities, and learn from trends to improve results over time. The possibilities are immense.

In indirect tax, AI may assess product descriptions based on an inventory list. The system can learn to accurately tag new products, regardless of how diverse their descriptions are, after being taught on thousands of previous examples and classifications. This is not science fiction; it is machine learning in action.

In compliance monitoring, AI may continually evaluate financial transactions and identify irregularities that signal tax exposure before submitting them to tax authorities. This early intervention skill is becoming increasingly important in a real-time auditing environment.

AI can help with transfer pricing by examining intercompany agreements to guarantee consistency with arm's length norms and spotting odd patterns in financial performance across companies that require further study. These are time-consuming chores that AI can significantly speed up without sacrificing accuracy.

AI is becoming increasingly important in tax dispute settlement. As audit processes become more data-intensive, having tools that can quickly understand large volumes of legal and financial documents become increasingly important. At RSM Indonesia, for example, our AAJ Tax platform uses AI trained on more than twenty thousand tax court decisions to find the most relevant precedents, evaluate patterns in tax court judgments, and give timely, fact-based arguments.

As governments improve their data-matching skills, having your own AI-powered defenses is no longer an option; it is required. AI's value lies not just in its speed, but also in its capacity to unearth insights that the human eye cannot perceive, providing organizations with the clarity and foresight they require to respond confidently to audits and disputes.

This is not about removing humans from the equation. It is about improving their capabilities, decreasing low-value busy work, and allowing them to focus on what is important: risk anticipation, strategy, and decision-making.

The Taxman Shift: From Cost Centre to Strategic Partner

Nothing works without people.

Artificial intelligence does not replace tax specialists. However, it alters their role. It shifts them away from busy work and toward planning. It allows them to think, analyze, and manage the business.

To get there, tax teams must upgrade their skills. They need to grasp data, systems, and automation logic.
Instead of coding, we should collaborate. To formulate better queries. To connect the dots.

When taxes are reactive, they are costly. When integrated, it is advantageous.

Consider understanding the tax implications of a pricing adjustment before launching or identifying a VAT risk in a supply chain before the tax authorities do. This is what happens when taxation is addressed early on, rather than later.

Taxation is no longer simply about filing on time. It is about visibility, control, and insight. Businesses that embrace this will move faster, take smarter risks, and have stronger foundations.

What to Consider Next?

At some point, every business must decide whether to continue patching things up or to start building properly.

With CoreTax fully operational, real-time monitoring in place, and AI entering mainstream, the traditional approach of tax management will simply not suffice.

So, ask yourself: