Survey: 82% of finance and tax leaders expect increased public tax disclosure in 2-3 years

As tax protocols and systems continue to evolve alongside advances in technology, CFOs are bracing for a wave of public tax disclosure requirements that could reshape how their organizations approach, report and oversee their tax processes.

The 2025 Global Tax Policy Survey, a new survey from Deloitte, found that 82% of global tax and finance leaders expect increased transparency demands within the next two to three years, with more than half anticipating mandatory external assurance on those disclosures. These disclosures may start to create complex tax and compliance risks for organizations that do business globally.

Globally, finance leaders who expect mandatory external assurance on public tax reports fall into the majority. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said this, primarily under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and EU Taxonomy regulation, two major sustainability-focused disclosure frameworks that require companies to report ESG data and classify their economic activities based on environmental sustainability.

But, this is not the only reason why some companies are choosing to report this way, with more than a third (35%) of respondents saying they plan to seek voluntary assurance regardless of whether it’s required.

Despite the initiative to expand reporting, there are concerns around the ability to execute these disclosures for the majority of respondents. Fifty-eight percent of survey respondents said they have high or very high concerns around their disclosure strategies, particularly around ensuring governance aligns with public tax statements, verification of data sources and standards and assessing starting risks tied to these new disclosures.

More than half (58%) of respondents say they have high or very high concerns about the impact of increased tax assurance on leadership's sentiment.

The complexities and changing dynamics of corporate tax, especially when dealing with global enterprises, can create significant challenges for finance teams. While experts say CFOs should always brush up on tax law, the reliance on their teams to deal with these changes is significant. As a result, getting assurance right to provide comfort to other decision makers is a major concern among finance leaders. More than half (58%) said they were either highly or very highly concerned about the impact of tax transparency impacting the comfort of senior leadership.

As global tax rules undergo their most significant overhaul in decades, two OECD-led frameworks, Pillar One and Pillar Two, are reshaping how multinational corporations are taxed. Pillar One aims to give countries where customers are located a larger share of taxable profits, even without a company’s physical presence.

Pillar One has faced major political challenges in the U.S., and was not touched on much in this survey, but Pillar Two establishes a 15% global minimum corporate tax, setting a floor for tax competition and limiting the advantages of shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions. For CFOs and tax leaders, the implementation of these rules introduces both operational complexity and strategic risk, particularly as compliance ramps up under Pillar Two.

Respondents were nearly evenly split on the financial impact of Pillar Two. While 46% said it would result in a meaningful increase in their overall tax liability, another 47% expect only a marginal increase.

Regardless of how they feel, global tax changes will likely cause CFOs to gear up for a tougher tax environment as new global minimum tax rules add layers of complexity to how companies report and comply. Forty-three percent of respondents are aware of this, saying the rules will increase the overall complexity of tax compliance for their businesses. Another 47% expect added complexity in some areas but anticipate relief from the repeal of other existing rules. Only 9% believe the level of complexity will remain unchanged.

The findings reflect growing concern that the implementation of Pillar Two, particularly as different countries adopt the rules at different paces, could create operational and reporting challenges for multinational finance teams.

As more companies lean into AI for everything from tax compliance to business operations, a new debate is starting to take shape about whether AI itself should be taxed. Nearly 8 in 10 (79%) said they are aware of policy conversations around taxing the profits or value that AI creates. Seventy-five percent of survey takers say they have heard about potential taxes on the emissions from AI data centers, and more than two-thirds are aware that there are initiatives to tax AI to help pay for reskilling workers displaced by automation.

The data indicates AI may be moving from a behind-the-scenes tool to a front-and-center tax issue. If these proposals gain traction, CFOs may eventually have to think about AI not just as a cost-saver or productivity booster, but as a tax liability. It’s one more area where tax and technology are starting to overlap, which highlights the importance of finance teams needing to stay plugged into the policy side of innovation.

Source: CFO.com