Automation and Taxation

Karl Berlin, Vice President and Head of Tax, Ørsted

Karl Berlin, Vice President and Head of Tax, Ørsted

A global leader in the renewable energy industry, Karl Berlin is Vice President and Head of Tax at Ørsted. Karl had previously served as Maersk’s head of tax. He has over 16 years of experience in the legal sector and has been named In-House Tax Director of the Year 2021 by the International Tax Review, and his team named European In-House Tax Team of the Year 2020.

What are Some of The Definitive and Promising Technological Automation Trends That Have Caught Your Attention Since Covid-19?

One benefit of the pandemic is that remote work has become essential, which has encouraged the development of numerous types of technologies that can aid in the automation process. Another perspective that however is unrelated to COVID is that we are moving toward newer technologies rather than attempting to fix the existing platforms, developing tax tools, for instance, on a platform already in use, like SAP.

What are The Best Practices and Tools That You have Adopted Recently for Better Outcomes?

Taxation is a complex topic that, unfortunately, is done manually. We’ve been hiring a very talented group of individuals to pull data from various systems and work with it in Microsoft Excel; however, this leaves some space for human error. We at Ørsted wanted to prepare for real-time reporting on indirect taxes in all of the countries where we operate, but we discovered that manual taxation is wasting time and costing us accuracy. As a result, we began to use robots to complete tasks. E-file and SAP are also being used to ensure that accuracy is maintained from the first entry itself.

"The point with the automated controls, whether they’re static or not, is to provide insights to the employees so that they could analyze the data, see trends, and see issues that arise"

What are Your Opinions on Some of The More Recent Financial Innovations, Like Machine Learning And Artificial Intelligence?

With all of the automation in place, you can begin to design controls that would enable you to analyze data. When data is extracted and fixed manually, there is so much time needed that it leaves almost no time for data analysis. So, the most significant change in recent years has been the rising emphasis put on data analysis.

Could You Share an Interaction With any Enterprise That is on The Verge of Transition From Legacy Systems to Digital Ecosystems? How Some of Your Best Practices Could Help Them in The Near Future?

In my company, for example, SAP R/3 is still being used. Consequently, you cannot refer to it as a legacy system. However, by automating processes and integrating robots and AI, you can achieve quite a bit with older systems as well. Nevertheless, the most essential thing is to ensure that you try to look at your processes in any control environment or analysis environment. If you merely build things on top of the original processes without addressing the existing flaws in the system, the result will inevitably be a failure.

Do You Have any new Technologies You’d Like to Share With our Readers That Might Have a Significant Impact on The Financial Arena in The Following two to Three Years?

The key concern is the constant influx of new compliance requisitions, most of which are redundant. There is currently no single centralized platform that can handle all indirect taxes, direct taxes, and transfer pricing. Considering the various country-by-country requirements for transfer pricing, the various mandatory disclosure or reporting requirements under EU legislation, or managing your uncertain tax positions and real contact reporting from a Value Added Tax (VAT) position. There are plenty of compliance requirements. I fear that we do not have the time to contemplate what kind of solution we need to address them all because the data is the same but is just assembled in different ways. As a result, we spend too long trying to comply instead of stopping to consider how we could design a tool, system, or set of procedures that will generate all the compliance reports that are required. Although I’m sure I’m not the only one that has this problem. There are so many intelligent individuals and developing technologies that some providers are definitely looking at this.

What Advice Would You Like to Offer to The Millennial Crowd That is Entering The Financial Arena?

A general piece of advice I would give to the millennial generation is to ensure that you are a part of the business rather than just a ‘support system’. This enables you to play a much more significant role within the organization. The availability of data is the most significant advantage in today’s world. You could become a valuable part of the business if you invest time in data analysis and understanding.