Data as a value driving asset – A tax perspective
Data is increasingly becoming a competitive advantage that makes and maintains industry leaders. Viewed through a tax lens, the risks and opportunities are significant.

Data is the new oil – Are you prepared from a tax perspective?
In order to develop a tax lens around the value of data and the functions and processes of turning raw data into strategic assets, organizations must first understand how they are using data to drive value.
Data and tax – Questions you should be asking:
As businesses continue to invest in data assets and develop new ways to harness value across their global organizations, tax departments are faced with understanding the impact to their current tax operating models:
- How are data asset investments structured within the global organization?
- How to identify and value data assets throughout the data lifecycle or “data value stack”?
- Who owns the assets?
- Who sets the strategies, performs key functions, and controls risks associated with data?
- Where do data assets fit within the organization’s core value drivers, and how does that impact the company’s existing value chain, economic relationships, and tax operating model?
- What transactions exist around data assets and how are they being reported for tax purposes?
This is no easy task. For many companies, the impact data has on an organization is substantial and complicated. There are no one-size fits all approaches to identifying, managing, and valuing data assets through a tax lens.
Data certainly is not just a byproduct of business operations, rather the data value stack is an ever increasing portfolio of value driving assets, functions and risk that requires careful consideration and alignment into global tax and transfer pricing operating models.
How KPMG can help
KPMG is helping companies effectively organize, visualize, assess, review, and manage the various components of their value drving data with a full suite of services:
- Data value stack assessment: KPMG can assess relative value to components of the data value stack which can provide visibility into where pockets of value are being created, where risks could lie, and which opportunities are most viable.
- Data value stack risk assessment: KPMG can deliver an expanded data value stack assessment that includes assessing identified exposures, documentiong potential controversy responses, and assessments of ASC 740 and 830 positionsand reporting.
- Support and compliance: Based on your facts and potential risk exposures, KPMG can help you support your tax provision and return positions.
- Data hub planning: KPMG can help design and implement a data hub fit for your specific purposes.
Dive into our thinking:
KPMG Value Chain Management: Data as a value - A tax perspective
Bringing a tax lens into the overall data strategy allows organizations to better align tax and business objectives around data, identify tax risks, as well as opportunities associated with the evolving digital landscape and determine where data assets fit within existing tax operating model frameworks. | September 2023
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