Future operations of the in-house Tax Function

By Simon Godley

As a recruitment specialist in the tax systems, process & technology market, I am curious and intrigued by how the operations of the tax function (particularly for the large multinational) will change over time, say over the next 5 years. I would also like to consider over the next 10 years, but that could be somewhat crystal ball stuff.

Should we expect SAP and tax to be fully interfaced?

Should we expect the tax database engine to be a more 'mainstream' technology?

Should we expect tax determination and tax return software to work smoothly together without any manual interventions?

Will an IT system have sufficient data and information built into it to remove the need for any human judgement on tax figures or disclosures?

Will a Group Tax Director be reviewing the tax compliance status for different countries / entities on his/her iPad via a cloud service?

Many contacts of mine in the market are very certain that tax systems are the future of the tax function, but I'm interested to know how this may unfold.
Given I am talking of these developments now, they are undoubtedly on our horizon, if not in some cases already happening.

Any views on this from people close to these technologies greatly appreciated.