A Thomson Reuters poll of tax pros at one of its Web events this week found that fully 87 percent have experienced an increased number of sales tax audits this year. About 70 percent say that their organization is focusing more strategically on indirect taxes, and 64 percent have implemented new programs and processes to remain compliant. more

Corporate sustainability is an untapped source of shareholder value and competitive differentiation.

Corporate sustainability is a passing trend.

Corporate sustainability is just one component of risk management.

Corporate sustainability is a major source of confusion.

Genuine corporate “sustainability” refers to the long-term success and existence of an organization.

After contributing to 2 months of intensive corporate sustainability research, I believe that each of these statements is true. Right now, sustainability is what one expert I interviewed describes as an “and” discipline (she used that phrasing to drive home the fact that her company’s sustainability initiatives reduce threats and generate value).

The product of this research is scheduled to appear in December in the form of a report that examines the role finance and accounting functions play in corporate sustainability programs. The report, jointly produced by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA), and U.K.-based Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), will be an eye-opener for CFOs, risk managers, and internal auditors, among other audiences. more

Does your organization take advantage of data analytics? According to the latest study from the MIT Sloan Management School and IBM’s Institute for Business Value, top-performing companies are three times more likely to be leading users of data analytics.

The study, based on a sample of nearly 3,000 executives and business analysts from 108 countries and 30 industries, found a clear connection between users of analytics technology and the ability to achieve competitive differentiation and performance. For example, top performers are five times more likely to apply analytics rather than intuition across the widest possible range of decisions. In finance and budgeting, top performers were nearly four times more likely than others to apply analytics. So much for making decisions based on what your gut says.

The study hits at a time when organizations are being inundated with data, often at a rate faster than their people and even their systems can effectively capture, assess, and act. And it is not just the volume of data but the speed at which it changes and variety of the information that makes analytics so difficult.

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One reason the unemployment rate is refusing to budge can be found right in the finance, HR, IT, and procurement departments of many companies. Between 2008 and 2010, European and North American companies with revenues of $1 billion or more shed 1.4 million jobs across these functions, according to a recent analysis by The Hackett Group. What’s more, another one million jobs in these departments are expected to disappear by 2014. By then, the total number of these positions will have been slashed nearly in half from 2000 levels. more

The deficit reduction plan du jour comes to you courtesy of the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) Debt Reduction Task Force, co-chaired by Senator Pete Domenici and Dr. Alice Rivlin. Titled “Restoring America’s Future,” it offers some attractive features for corporate taxpayers (as does the draft plan put forward by the President’s deficit reduction commission last week; see my blog). For a summary of the main business-related proposals, click on MORE below:

Debt Killer? more