Vertex, a maker of global indirect tax and compliance technologies, has released the 2026 Vertex CompOps Index, a global study of how enterprises govern indirect tax and compliance, and how closely tax, IT, and finance work together to run it.
At most enterprises, indirect tax has no standing place in the room where strategy is set. Only one in six (16%) reports it as a standing item at board or executive-committee level, and at 43%, it surfaces only when a problem arises, if ever. Those that discuss it there at least periodically look markedly different. They are one-quarter as likely to say their errors are usually identified by external parties (4% vs. 16%), nearly twice as likely to answer a tax-authority notice within five business days (48% vs. 26%), and half as likely to make and verify taxability changes entirely by hand (13% vs. 26%).
“Indirect tax is one of the few functions where determinations are made continuously, exposure is lasting, but conversations about risk are episodic and after the fact,” said Allison Cerra, Chief Marketing Officer at Vertex. “The enterprises running indirect tax best govern it like any other strategic function, as a recurring part of how the business is run, not only when issues surface. The gap between those two postures is not a matter of scale. It is a matter of attention.”
The gaps extend to AI. Among enterprises that discuss indirect tax at least periodically at the board level, 54% say AI now operates largely autonomously or handles routine work in their tax workflows, compared with 21% of those that do not. They are also more likely to have a dedicated budget and a named executive owner for AI in indirect tax.
The Index also sorts enterprises into four tiers of AI capability in indirect tax and compliance, scored on data and system readiness, enablement, governance, and deployment. The most capable tier (13% of enterprises studied) treats indirect tax as an investment priority rather than a maintenance item: 85% of its IT leaders describe it as a funded strategic priority on the technology roadmap, against 5% in the least capable tier. The most capable tier also stays ahead of regulatory change: 55% proactively monitor for changes with automated updates, against 9% of the least capable tier.
Every group shares one problem: proving their tax position. About half of enterprises (52%) take a more conservative approach when they lack sufficient evidence, and among those holding indirect tax reserves, 73% say at least a quarter of the reserve is tied to tax treatments they cannot readily substantiate, not because the law is unclear.
“The findings suggest that operational maturity in indirect tax is less about organization size and more about governance,” said Kevin Permenter, Research Director, Enterprise Applications at IDC. “With compliance requirements becoming increasingly continuous, organizations that integrate tax into broader business and technology decisions appear far better positioned to adapt to change, manage risk proactively, and maintain visibility across the compliance lifecycle.”
The 2026 Vertex CompOps Index reveals where indirect tax risk hides and how leading enterprises get ahead of what’s next. It is available at https://vertexcompops.kinsta.cloud/.
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Tags: business taxes, corporate taxes, indirect tax, survey, Taxes, Vertex
