How STMicroelectronics Engineered a Modern Tax Close

Points of Success

Streamlining Global Tax Provisioning and Pillar 2 Reporting With Longview Tax

• Accelerated Pillar 2 Reporting: Book Pillar 2 tax charges within one week of financial close—dramatically faster than the previous manual, spreadsheet-driven process.
• Reduced Risk and Manual Effort: Eliminated reliance on 70+ Excel files, improving data accuracy, consistency, and traceability across global entities.
• Improved Auditability and Confidence: Established a controlled, auditable tax process that supports US GAAP and IFRS reporting and strengthens SOX compliance.

STMicroelectronics is a global leader in semiconductor manufacturing, operating in more than 38 countries and reporting under both US GAAP and IFRS standards. With a complex international structure and growing compliance demands, particularly following the OECD’s introduction of the Pillar 2 legislation, STMicroelectronics’ Tax team faced increasing pressure to deliver timely, accurate, and auditable tax figures, without increasing headcount.

Recognizing the need to replace its highly manual, spreadsheet-based processes, STMicroelectronics sought a modern tax provisioning solution that could streamline reporting, improve accuracy, and prepare the organization for emerging global tax requirements.

Manual Work and High Risk

STMicroelectronics’ tax provisioning process relied on Excel templates circulated across more than 70 entities worldwide. Local teams submitted tax data in various currencies and formats, requiring significant manual consolidation by headquarters.

This process introduced several challenges:

• High risk of data errors due to manual handling and re-entry.
• No direct SAP integration, requiring cross-checks and validation of every data point.
• Limited visibility and control, with no single source of truth for tax data.
• Time-consuming consolidation, stretching the financial close timeline and complicating compliance efforts.

The team needed a tool that would reduce manual work, ensure data integrity, and meet both US GAAP and IFRS requirements, all while supporting a global, decentralized team that includes both local Tax Managers and Financial Controllers with less tax expertise.

Partnering for Change

After evaluating several potential tax technology solutions – including Oracle TRCS, SAP PAPM, CorpTax, OneSource, and OneStream – STMicroelectronics selected Longview Tax from insightsoftware for its flexibility, multidimensional capabilities, and strong roadmap for global tax transparency, including Pillar 2 and public County-by-Country reporting.

“Longview was the best fit for our global tax process requirements. It was user-friendly, adaptable, and aligned with our future needs. Some other tools were too rigid or too US-centric,” said Elise.

Elise highlighted the importance of engaging with her IT team early, to help ensure a successful and timely selection process and implementation project. STMicroelectronics has an SAP-first strategy, following their recent investment in transitioning to S/4HANA. Consequently, it was important for the Tax team to be prepared to explain the business case for implementing a Tax-dedicated solution from another software vendor.

Implementation of the Longview Tax software was carried out in collaboration with Deloitte, with Elise’s established close relationship with the firm ensuring a smooth rollout. The initial phase focused on US GAAP reporting to meet critical deadlines, with IFRS implementation and SAP integration scheduled for subsequent phases.

Longview Tax was quickly adopted by STMicroelectronics’ global Tax and Finance user community, who appreciated its easy-to-use interface, intuitive controls, and streamlined workflow.

Efficiency, Accuracy, and Auditability

The results of implementing Longview Tax were immediate and measurable:

• Significant Time Savings: The tax team can now book Pillar 2 tax charges within one week of the financial close, compared to the previous much longer manual process.
• Improved Data Quality: Even when using flat file uploads during the first phase, data sourced from SAP and managed through Longview became more reliable, consistent, and traceable.
• Reduced Manual Work: One example benefit of the Longview Excel Add-in is that it enables working papers to be quickly refreshed, reducing dependence on static spreadsheets.
• Improved Auditability and Confidence: Longview Tax supports accurate and auditable tax figures, enabling clean sign-offs and strengthening SOX compliance.

“Data quality and speed have both improved significantly. We have demonstrated that we have established an auditable process for Pillar 2, and we no longer spend time chasing errors,” said Elise.

The adoption of Longview Tax has provided visibility into tax positions and effective tax rate (ETR) calculations across all global entities, as well as laying a strong foundation for Pillar 2 readiness.

Future Development

Future plans for Longview Tax at STMicroelectronics include SAP integration once IT and budget approvals align, expanding automation into related processes such as interim reporting and SOX controls, and the developing a UTP tracker within Longview to replace their current Excel-based methods. “Our next focus is integration and automation,” Elise shared. “As the tool matures, we expect to gain even more value from it.”

Conclusion

STMicroelectronics’ journey with Longview Tax demonstrates how a global organization can modernize tax provisioning while maintaining control, accuracy, and compliance across dozens of entities and reporting frameworks.

By transitioning from spreadsheets to an integrated tax data management platform, STMicroelectronics has achieved faster reporting, reduced risk, and built a foundation for future automation. Elise says, “Longview gives us speed, accuracy, and confidence in our tax numbers. It’s a big step forward from the manual processes we had before.”