Deloitte Australia to purchase tax software business, Jet Financial
Deloitte continues to build on its ecosystem of technology alliances, signing a deal to acquire tax software specialists, Jet Financial (Jet).
Jet – founded by ex-Big Four tax professionals, David Faustmann and Simon Raper – is a niche tax software developer, unique in Australia for combining deep tax expertise with a software design and build approach which leverages their platform. This enables Jet to create bespoke software solutions to help companies automate and better manage their tax processes and reporting requirements.
Deloitte Chief Executive Officer, Richard Deutsch said: “The tax function of our clients, the role of the tax professional and the role of the Australian Tax Office, are all changing significantly due to digital disruption. Technologies like cloud computing, the Internet of Things, data analytics, robotic process automation and artificial intelligence are considerably disrupting the way tax compliance and reporting is undertaken.”
Deloitte’s new Managing Partner, Tax and Legal, Brett Greig said; “Increasingly, tax teams are looking to software and technology solutions to capture and manage their data for tax purposes, and to streamline their tax reporting and compliance requirements. By Jet joining Deloitte, we will give our clients access to some of the best tax software solutions in the business.”
“We anticipate massive change to the tax profession in the next five years and are actively recruiting for more ‘tax technologists’ – we’re already seeing a demand in tax for people from STEM backgrounds and we’ve started to escalate the hiring of and collaboration with, data scientists, ERP experts and software builders,” said Mr Greig.
To lead the profession in digital tax, we are leveraging the deep digital and technological skills Deloitte is known for in Consulting (e.g. Deloitte Digital) and applying them to our Tax practice and Jet Financial adds further value to our clients.
Tax partner and Digital Tax leader, Jon Graham, said: “With Jet’s software platform now in the Deloitte family together we can work with our clients especially those in industries where we share expertise, such as financial services and energy and resources. For example, Jet offers dedicated software solutions to help companies automate and manage Financial Services GST Calculations, the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax, large Superannuation Fund tax and Life Company tax.”
Co-Founder and Director of Jet Financial, Simon Raper, said: “Becoming a part of Deloitte allows us to draw on the wealth of technology and consulting expertise within Deloitte and provides us with an opportunity to serve a much larger client base. Deloitte’s wide ranging tax and technical resources and the agility of our platform will enable us to rapidly scale up our solution development capability. Also, Deloitte’s deep understanding of the evolving customer functions will ensure that our growth is targeted to satisfy current and future market needs. We believe the Deloitte ethos to do new things differently is the same innovative spirit we have at Jet and will benefit our existing and future customers. The tax function, like many others, is changing fast with the rise of new technologies and we are looking forward to delivering the next wave of innovation to clients.”