How to build a flexible Tax Governance Strategy
Find everything you need to know!
Module 1:
Know your terrain
When you see what's broken, the instinct is to start fixing. Resist it. Before you change anything, you need an honest, complete map of where you stand.
In this module you will learn:
- Understand the business before the tax. Map your legal entities, verticals and jurisdictions first. Tax is embedded in all of them, and you can't fix what you can't see.
- Your technology stack decides what's possible. The systems you run on shape every later choice, especially when you bring in new tax technology. Know them before you plan.
- Relationships are your information pipeline. A 360-degree view comes from people, not documents. The stronger your ties across finance, the verticals and operations, the better the information you get.
Let's dive in.
Start with the whole picture
Jesús Ricart, Head of Indirect Tax at Al Tayer, has built tax functions from scratch across the GCC. His advice for any tax leader stepping into a new role: understand the business first. The footprint, the legal entities, the business verticals, the jurisdictions and the technology stack. Tax runs through all of it. Until you can see the whole picture, any change you make is a guess.
That picture is what he calls a 360-degree view. "If you are doing this, you have a 360-degree view of the company," he told us. It isn't a one-time audit. It's the working knowledge that lets you spot where tax risk actually lives.
Your stack decides what's possible
One part of the terrain matters more than the rest: your technology stack. The tools you can realistically put in place are shaped by the systems you already run, so knowing them is the difference between a plan that works and one that stalls.
VJ, who led Shell's tax transformation across more than 100 countries, makes the same point from the top down. Before redesigning anything, his teams mapped the operating model end to end: the taxonomies, processes, data, systems and controls. You can't design the future state until you understand the current one.
Earn your seat at the table
A map of systems isn't enough. You need the people. Aaron Meneghin, Tax Director at Valentino, works two tracks at once: formal sessions with the departments most exposed to tax (controlling, legal, logistics, finance and operations) and the quieter work of simply being around. "If you just drink a coffee once in a while, or have a lunch together, that plays a big role," he says.
That presence earns something you can't demand. As Jesús puts it: "Having your place at the table is not easy. It is a continuous process. You must earn the trust and the reliability." And it's built in person. The relationship you have after meeting someone face-to-face, he notes, is simply different from one built over video. It can even be a little fun: Jesús hands out Keeyns' "Breaking VAT" stickers to make tax visible across the office.
Brigitte Baumgartner, founder of The Tax Graph, goes a step further: she starts every project with people, not processes. "We don't start with pains and processes. We start with people," she says. She maps the stakeholders with the main user, the person actually doing the task, at the centre, then works outward. Skip that step, she warns, and you get "frustration after one year, because there was no analysis at the beginning."
In short
- Map the business first: entities, verticals, jurisdictions and the technology stack.
- Build a 360-degree view through the people across finance, the verticals and operations.
- Start with people, not processes.
Looking ahead
Once you know the terrain, you need the authority to act on it. Module 2 is about winning your most important sponsor: the CFO. We'll show you how the best tax leaders get leadership behind them, in the language the C-suite responds to.
Knowing your terrain is hard when it's scattered across spreadsheets and inboxes. Keeyns brings every entity, process and obligation into one place, so your 360-degree view stays current instead of going stale the moment you finish building it.