What are the 3 tax areas that currently require the highest attention of your tax department?
As lead for Corporate Tax and Customs in Nordex, the three areas with the most impact are Value Added Tax, Transfer Pricing and Customs. If we focus on pure tax areas, international taxation, and the global initiatives get high attention, too.
What is your experience with international tax dispute resolution and tax dispute avoidance?
Our goal is to foster an open and cooperative working climate with the tax authorities, but also to prevent double taxation. With this goal, we aim for a stable status of tax certainty at an early stage and focus on tax dispute prevention rather than resolution.
In my experience, joint audits work well in Europe and help to align between tax authorities. However, the governing legal framework certainly needs more harmonization.
Tax dispute resolution measures such as Mutual Agreement Procedures need to develop from a paper tiger to a serious tool. Compared to this, the EU tax dispute resolution mechanism has the chance to develop to a reliable tool.
I expect that dispute resolution tools become more important with the implementation of global minimum taxation, especially in the first years where dispute prevention measures still need to be developed on a global basis.
Is Pillar Two relevant for your company and what is your approach currently undertaken in this regard (first mover or follower)?
We see us as a first follower. It is an interdisciplinary project with Tax & Accounting with tax in the lead. We see a strong link of this project to our S4/Hana project.
How do you manage scarce resources of tax specialists, what is your strategy in this regard?
We are looking for team players with a high level of commitment and entrepreneurial thinking beyond the boundaries of the specific specialization. We offer exciting tasks, in global teams and an open management culture. As a team member you can take responsibility for projects in an industry for a green future. As an employer we provide the freedom for ideas to develop innovation and help us progress as a company. As part of the team, you will be challenged by a broad range of tasks and supported with effective training, development programs, collegiality, and individual career planning.
This year’s IFA Congress takes place in Germany, what is you outside-in-view of the German tax landscape, what was your most remarkable experiences with Germany in terms of taxes?
My view of the German tax landscape is the internal view. But if you look at the international landscape and its development over the last decades, you can say that German tax rules and concepts have been successfully exported all over the world. We see how the interest barrier regulation and minimum taxation have been implemented worldwide. At the beginning of my career, we had to explain the German rules. Today, these concepts are international standard. Apart from that, perhaps what is still special – as seen from the outside – is the German administrative procedure for treaty or directive relief.
The interview was created in noncommercial cooperation with Win@Ifa, the women’s organization of the International Fiscal Association. The International Fiscal Association (Ifa) is a neutral, independent, non-lobbying organization. The purpose of the Ifa is to study and promote international and comparative tax law. The Ifa realizes its purpose through scientific research, the organization of congresses and seminars and the publication of studies. The Ifa currently has more than 11,000 members worldwide, both individuals and companies. This year, the IfaCongress will take place in Berlin at the beginning of September.
The Women in Ifa Network (Win) is a network of women within the Ifa who work in the international tax field. Win Global and Win Germany promote professional exchange through the Win Seminar and Win in Conversation and hold cultural events such as the Win Reception, the Win Luncheon and the Win Lounge.
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