Ireland 
USA 
British Land’s robotic automation process
The challenge
British Land has around 300 tax computations to submit each year, of which the majority are straightforward and formulaic. Evelyn Partners designed, implemented and ran a robotic automation process for the submission of around 240 of its tax computations ahead of the pre-Christmas deadline in 2019. The remaining, more complex calculations were filed manually.
For British Land, it provided a more sustainable long-term solution than simply hiring temporary staff to ensure the submissions were completed on time.
Designing the process took around two weeks. We had a tightly planned kick-off meeting, where expectations were set and roles assigned. This was vital to ensure that everyone involved knew exactly what they had to submit, to whom and when. This was followed up with process notes that were given to the team, along with screenshots from those involved in the submission process. The aim at all stages was to minimise disruption for British Land, so the process was customised to work round its existing systems.
The results
Within the first four days of operation, 72% of the work had been processed. For context, this would normally have taken two weeks. Importantly, much of the ‘work’, ie, the robotic processing, took place over weekends and evenings. On one Saturday before Christmas, 72 returns were submitted.
The control sheet confirmed which returns had been submitted. This data could then be passed on to British Land’s Head of Tax and Group Financial Controller so they were kept up to date.
Of course, there were glitches, usually as a result of differences between the name on the control sheet and the name in the tax system. This required some manual tweaking but these problems were ironed out quickly.
Having been through the process once, we expect a far clearer run next time around. British Land now also plans to investigate whether or not some of the more complex returns can be automated.
The group found there were fewer HMRC queries for this year’s accounts, suggesting that accuracy may have been improved by robotic submissions.
The benefits to the client
The benefits for British Land were clear: fewer resources were needed to process the lion’s share of returns. Fewer queries from HMRC meant less time spent resolving problems. This has meant a far lighter burden on the tax compliance team for the group.
Robotic automation has removed a significant source of anxiety in an already difficult period. We believe other property groups with a similarly onerous tax compliance process may want to consider adopting robotics.