The ideas from this article are not my own. The information provided is from the more than three thousand corporate tax executives I have written or spoken to about their experiences outsourcing the tax function or keeping a tax team inside the company over the years. Recently, I sent a letter to three thousand tax executives in the Fortune 5000 asking them to answer four survey questions surrounding in-sourcing tax work versus outsourcing tax work to which many responded. This article is about sharing educated tax executives’ valuable experiences on outsourcing tax work versus keeping tax responsibilities in-house.

For over three decades, I have been educated by thousands of tax executives and CFOs through my tax executive search services about in-sourcing versus outsourcing of the corporate tax function. Over the years I watch waves of outsourcing, then bringing all tax responsibilities back in-house. Tax Executives and CFOs are in my ear every day sharing stories with me. What typically happens is that the CFOs and CEOs are convinced by advisors that outsourcing is a good way to trim costs. This article will discuss what leading tax executives, CFOs and Executive Boards have learned, in hindsight, what happens when they outsource tax work and what happens when the tax team remains in-house.

Again, I repeat these are not my own words or ideas. The information provided in this article is valuable because it is an accurate accumulation of the real thoughts and experiences of hundreds of tax executives who were kind enough to respond to my survey questions as long as I did not identify them by name or company. I hope you will find this article informative and valuable if you are contemplating these issues. The goal of this article is to learn from the experiences of others who outsourced the tax work to consultants versus having an in-house corporate tax organization who maintains the integrity of the information for the company.

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