Why Tax and Finance Should Embrace the Triple-Threat Position in 2026
CFOs are under intense pressure these days. This means that the relationships between finance chiefs and indirect tax leaders are also coming under strain. The good news is that there’s a playbook for addressing the root causes of finance-tax misalignment in 2026.
Through the first half of 2025, CFO turnovers occurred at a near-record pace: 173 publicly listed companies hired new CFOs, according to Korn Ferry, which also reports that more than one-third of CFOs at mid-market firms are considering leaving, “a product of CEOs themselves exiting, as well as demographics and burnout.” Recent analysis by Grant Thornton points to several causes of CFO pressure and burnout.
How CFOs view the U.S. economy during the past two years has varied wildly. Grant Thornton conducts quarterly surveys of CFOs, through which finance chiefs rate how optimistically they view the economy’s prospects in the next six months. When these quarterly impressions are plotted on a graph over time, the trend line resembles a rollercoaster ride. Happily (for the moment) optimism has resumed an upward trajectory following a jarring swoon in the previous two quarters.
One source of CFO unease stems from concerns over tariffs and related uncertainties, which remain high: 64% of finance leaders surveyed by Grant Thornton indicate that tariffs are having a negative impact. Second, many CFOs remain unclear whether their tax groups fully understand how the One Big Beautiful Act (OBBA) can benefit their business. “Adjusting tax planning strategies for 2025 and beyond” represents a top-three OBBA concern among CFOs. Adjusting supply chains in response to tariffs (changes that often have major tax implications) also rate as a top CFO concern. Lastly, CFOs are concerned about whether their organizations are keeping pace with automation breakthroughs, like AI, and adjusting their data management capabilities in order to do so.
The report describes these factors (persistent tariff volatility, new tax legislation, and rising AI integration) as the “disruptive triumvirate.” An effective way to address these challenges is by borrowing a page from basketball playbooks and adopting the finance-tax version of a “triple threat position” – a spring-loaded crouch from which a player is poised to pass, shoot, or dribble the ball.
The tax and finance actions (variants on passing, shooting, and dribbling) that Grant Thornton recommends include:
- Automating routine tax compliance processes to free resources for strategic tax planning
- Reassessing global tax structures while evaluating tariff implications and OBBA-related opportunities
- Looking for opportunities to integrate more tax planning and tax analytics into existing financial planning and analysis (FP&A) activities
- Creating and continuously improving tax data management infrastructure that supports complex tax compliance requirements as well as new AI tools.
While these activities involve a lot of work, usually from cross-functional teams, the returns on those efforts are likely to be high at a time when CFOs plan to “lean in” on tax functions, as the Grant Thornton report describes.
