Highlights:

  • Although Thomson Reuters is best recognized for its international news organization, it also deals in software, providing enterprise-level tools and applications for legal, accounting, and financial management.
  • According to the firm, SafeSend will remain available as a stand-alone product for the time being, and it will continue to have native connections with competing tax software programs.

The global media organization and technology service provider Thomson Reuters Corp. acquired SafeSend, a tax automation software business for a whopping USD 600 million.

SafeSend, formally cPaperless LLC, is a Michigan-based company, established in 2008. In order to streamline the processing and administration of sensitive financial documents, such as tax filings, it developed a cloud-based platform. Among other services, it offers tools for completing tax forms, collecting payments, obtaining electronic signatures, automating financial processes, and reporting compliance.

The company’s headquarters in Michigan employ 235 people. According to the company, 70% of the top 100 accounting firms in the US use its platform.

Although Thomson Reuters is best recognized for its international news organization, it also deals in software, providing enterprise-level tools and products for legal, accounting, and financial management.

In fact, SafeSend already has native connections with Thomson Reuters’ tax preparation software, UltraTax CS, and appears to be a perfect fit for that program. Thomson Reuters claims that it will be able to automate the “last mile” of the tax return process by more effectively integrating SafeSend’s capabilities with its own tax products.

According to Elizabeth Beastrom, President of tax, audit, and accounting professionals at Thomson Reuters, the acquisition demonstrates the company’s dedication to tackling the issues that taxpayers and tax professionals face.

“By integrating SafeSend’s innovative technology with our existing solutions, we’re simplifying tax preparation workflows and meeting the dynamic demands of businesses we serve to help them thrive in an increasingly complex tax landscape,” she added.

According to the firm, SafeSend will remain available as a stand-alone product for the time being, and it will continue to have native connections with competing tax software programs.

Generative AI landscape

SafeSend’s ability to assist Thomson Reuters in enhancing its artificial intelligence skills is probably one of the factors that led to the acquisition. By collecting data and automatically assembling the required paperwork for clients, SafeSend One, a new generative AI-powered application, was introduced in November. It is claimed to automate the entire tax return procedure.

In October, Thomson Reuters took a similar action when it paid an unknown sum to acquire Materia Inc., a U.S. firm that has created AI agents for accountants.

In order to better serve their clients, accountants can use Materia’s platform to develop and personalize AI assistants that can automate knowledge tasks related to tax, auditing, and research. The AI bots from the startup are capable of more than just answering questions and summarizing information; they can also generate reports, emails, and analyze documents without the need for human assistance.

In order to integrate AI technologies with its information technology solutions, Thomson Reuters said in November that it will invest over USD 100 million in these technologies this year. It stated that it plans to train its AI models using the enormous amount of data that its news agency and software platforms have amassed.

In November 2022, SurePrep LLC, a company in accounting automation, was acquired by Thomson Reuters for USD 500 million.