Why did you choose to pursue a career in tax? Was there an ‘aha’ moment? If so, please describe.

When I was studying law, I always said that I would not choose tax as a career and certainly never specialize in indirect taxes. This really shows that you cannot always predict what to expect in a career, which depends on relationships, opportunities, lucky accidents, and for me, a clear drive to explore new horizons. My ‘aha’ moment happened recently when I got confirmed to lecture the VAT part of the tax course, I followed 25 years ago when studying law at University, while also being the co-professor of VAT at the Tax Master I graduated from. This was a true ambition—it has come full circle on that front.

From your career, is there a particular deal that sticks out to you as a turning point, or watershed moment for you, and why? What did you learn or take away from that deal?

The deal that taught me the most is connected to an internal mission I once received around setting up an automated foreign VAT refund offering. I was still a young partner but did then an accelerated/mini ‘MBA in practice’, having to make the business case, pitch it fifty times to get support and funding, work on the business and IT requirements, before analyzing the market to end up piloting the acquisition of a Swedish company. This involved quality, risk, financial, legal considerations, tough negotiations, sales projections, team and process integrations, an experience that I would then leverage much in client and other projects. Many mistakes, but most importantly, various lessons learned.

What do you consider to be the greatest achievements of your career to date?

Who knew that in 1998, when a client asked to help them register for VAT purposes and manage their compliance in fifteen countries, while supporting the analysis of their supply chain and implementation of their ERP system, that years later this initial request would have led to the creation of our European compliance centre, which enables companies to outsource, in a centralized way, the management of pan-European obligations and related issues to a single provider? The team of two that we were has now grown to more than four hundred and managed over two decades to develop many skilled indirect tax professionals spread around the world. Being part of the people contributing to this is the best achievement one could have, as you feel you play a (humble) role in a dynamic and challenging adventure.

 

Tax work in the pandemic era

What kind of challenges did you face adapting to the workplace amid the pandemic?

Our profession is to serve clients, which means to me, developing long-term trust relationships. The virtual world we entered around March 2020 demonstrated that despite most of the work we do being possible to be done digitally, the human factor remains central and still requires a real environment to grow. Personally, I also missed the human connection one has when in the office, picking up signals on the wellbeing of colleagues, spending time to brainstorm around a coffee, or just sharing experiences. Hence, I hope the new normal will combine the best of both worlds.

Are there any initiatives that you have observed which you feel may help your clients deal with the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic?

One project which was particularly nice to follow during the pandemic was the work my global trade and customs colleagues have done helping life science companies manage their supply chain to ensure smooth imports/exports/clearance of protective gear, medical equipment, raw material to produce vaccines and then to rapidly distribute those around. This was a race against the clock and a project where the impact is directly connected to our health and life, which rarely happens.

What is the most significant change to your region/jurisdiction’s tax legislation or regulations in the past 12 months?

Clearly, it was the implementation of the new VAT ‘e-commerce’ directive during the summer, which also impacted many people ordering products online from sellers outside of the EU. I indeed never had so many comments (and complaints) from friends, family, and other contacts, really ‘feeling’ the cost and obligations connected with indirect taxes, and understanding a bit better what we may be doing.

What was one of the most interesting deals you worked on in the past year and why?

Triggered by centralization, digitalization, cost-cutting exercises, ERP implementations, business model revamping, and/or M&A transactions, many clients are in a process to rethink their tax operating models. Last year, I had the chance to participate in some of those ‘future of tax’ projects.

A remarkable event in one of those was bringing two of my clients (from two different industries) together to openly discuss their tax ‘operational’ strategy, which appeared to be very similar. A very insightful process that I wish to replicate in the near future.

What potential other legislative/regulatory changes are on the horizon that you think will have a big impact on your region/jurisdiction?

My focus around compliance, process, technology, and the operationalization of indirect taxes brings me to reflect around the explosion of real-time reporting, e-invoicing, SAF-T, and other requirements across our region (and beyond). The whole ‘Digital tax reporting’ debate is going to be central in the near future, as the lack of harmonization, vision, and ‘common standard’ leads to massive costs for businesses to remain compliant when operating across multiple jurisdictions, knowing that countries and tax authorities will be going forward even more to seek to automate tax audits based on real time and detailed transactional data.

 

A career in tax

What key piece of advice would you give to young attorneys just getting into a firm or entry-level job? Is there something you wish you knew when you were first starting out?

Two things come to my mind, i.e., having a curious mindset, spending time at a young age to discover, explore opportunities, take risks, taking a proactive approach at the start of a career, and then the concept of ‘intrapreneurship’. I indeed always believed (and experienced it) that there is room and a great benefit to behaving like a true entrepreneur—even within our structures—as this enables us to build and demonstrate unique skills, next to the required deep tax expertise we are developing.

What does your firm do to nurture and promote talent? Do you think it compares well to others in your market in this area?

Our main asset being our talented colleagues, nurturing and promoting talent is a no-brainer, requiring our full attention. The big shift I have experienced and consistently applied over the last five-six years is to mainly focus on personality and skills rather than diplomas and academic results. Once a part of the team, we aim to ensure that our talent grows and develops based on their strengths and desires, creating an open culture and diverse atmosphere, knowing that this is the best way to motivate anyone to show their full potential.

If you could introduce one new policy in the legal profession what would it be?

Over the last years, legislators around the globe have adopted measures to combat fraud by making pressure on various intermediaries/service providers, such as banks, law firms, tax advisors, platforms ensuring that where their clients are not compliant, the related intermediary either becomes co-liable or has an obligation to disclose. Leveraging on this increased responsibility, need for transparency, why not considering our professions as a trusted partner to tax administrations, public authorities, financial and other institutions, working out a ‘positive’ role to certify, guarantee, facilitate and promote positive and fair behaviours. Some initiatives exist in that field/some countries but could structurally be articulated further.

What does the tax function of the future look like?

Since last year, we have created (internally) a series of awareness sessions around the ‘Future of tax’. This is how we try to draw the tax function of the future together with our clients: ‘Adaptable tax organizations operate with an agile mindset, talent models that drive agility through networks, and—increasingly—automation technologies that augment and amplify the capabilities of those tax teams’.

 

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