Easing private banks’ tax reporting burden
Private banks are under greater pressure than ever to meet tax reporting requirements in multiple countries, says Jürgen Debus, founder and CEO of AlphaTax. The company he founded in Luxembourg more than 15 years ago now serves clients in many European markets, and provides tax reporting for more than 30 countries.
What does AlphaTax do, and who are its clients?
AlphaTax provides country-specific tax reports for leading private banks and their high net worth clients, in Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and other European countries. Accuracy, speed, data security, automation and compliance are central to our work. We offer two service models. With business process outsourcing, banks send us raw data and we handle everything, from validation to final reports, using dedicated non-cloud servers to meet compliance requirements in countries such as Switzerland and Luxembourg. For clients who prefer in-house report generation, we offer software as a service on dedicated servers. I founded AlphaTax over 15 years ago, following my experience as project manager for tax reporting at DZ Bank. From our headquarters in Luxembourg and offices in Germany and Switzerland, our workforce of around 30 people provides tax reporting for more than 30 countries, and can handle any core bank data format, perform validation, and add sources such as WM Data, SIX-Telekurs and other tax data providers. Once quality assurance is complete and we have client approval, we produce final tax reports that can be customised with the bank’s branding and disclaimers.
How are your clients’ needs evolving, and how is AlphaTax adapting to meet them?
The financial industry is changing rapidly, and tax reporting is evolving, too. Our clients face increasing regulatory pressure, and expectations for transparency and precision are growing. Private banks face stricter tax transparency requirements under the Common Reporting Standard and the US FATCA legislation; they need non-cloud solutions, especially in Switzerland, and are looking to outsource reporting without losing data control and security. AlphaTax offers a standard interface for core banking systems including Olympic, Avaloq, Temenos, Finnova, Apsys and Azqore to ensure seamless integration, providing robust analytics and feedback to identify data inconsistencies, and rapid response times, typically within 24 hours. Our new Swiss entity in Basel significantly expands our client base because Swiss banks often do not allow offshore processing of tax reports. Each client has a dedicated server in their own country – for Switzerland in a secure, FINMA-compliant data centre. Our infrastructure meets the strict standards of regulators such as FINMA and the CSSF, including audits, security and mandatory supervision.
“We aim to remain a leader in tax reporting solutions through innovation, compliance and client focus.”
What is AlphaTax’s vision for the next five years?
We aim to remain a leader in tax reporting solutions through innovation, compliance and client focus. We plan to expand our presence in the core markets of Germany, Luxembourg, France, Austria and Switzerland; integrate AI-driven analytics to improve data quality and streamline workflows; continue to invest in secure localised infrastructure; and develop custom features that directly address clients’ compliance and operational needs. In the coming years we do not expect significant market consolidation, bar perhaps some mergers in Switzerland, but banks will need to invest more in standardisation, data centres and data providers, with which we can help them. The biggest pain points will remain tax law changes in each market, requiring regular updates of our reporting data and software. We work with longstanding trusted tax partners who keep us informed about changes and advise us on reporting for each country. We are proud of the trust we’ve built with our banking clients, and we will continue to support them in the evolving regulatory landscape.
