One minute with Francois Chadwick, the global head of tax and accounting at Uber.
What’s keeping you busy at work at the moment?
There has been no better time to be involved in global tax issues. So much change is occurring with tax legislation at all levels - US Federal, US State, local country and at the OECD/EU level. All of these changes need to be reviewed and interpreted as a complete jigsaw puzzle. One cannot look at each piece in isolation.
Moreover, as Uber continues to expand geographically and adds new service offerings on the platform, we have to determine the tax impact in this very dynamic environment which is constantly changing. As they say, the only constant is change!
What’s the key tax challenge facing your industry sector?
I can answer this question in one word: uncertainty. With the many new tax rules that have or may be introduced, it is incredibly difficult to model out any future tax impacts for the company. This leads to much more complex modelling using a lot of ‘what if’ scenarios.
Some potential digital tax discussions have elements that are causing us concern. We are therefore working closely with the various tax bodies and regulators around the world to create a clear picture of the impact of some items of those rules.
What advice would you give to tax policy makers?
Please take the time to understand the impacts that some suggested changes will have on business economics. We all need to avoid a situation where tax rules stifle beneficial economic growth. I think we can all agree that supporting an environment for the growth and proliferation of new companies, technologies and products will benefit an economy. We should not have a tax policy that slows or stops that.
What’s your view on tax reform for workers in the gig economy?
As the head of tax at Uber, I have always promoted a transparent principled philosophy for everything we do. We always discuss how to support and facilitate compliance by third parties who use our platform (e.g. drivers). As such, we are working closely with various governments and tax authorities on educating the independent contractors on our platform and at the same time looking at the rules for data exchanges. We want to promote compliance for everyone.
Where do you see corporate international tax reform heading?
There will be much more global transparency on everything a company does. This will lead to a number of new tax rules coming out at a regional or local country level. I hope to see a rational discussion around apportionment and allocation at the global level. I do have concerns that certain rules could lead to multiple layers of tax on the same income.
How does Uber utilise technology in the tax process?
I’ve brought together a team within the department to create and build an end-to-end solution for all of tax. Once the accounting team has booked its entries and we have those in our ERP system, we’re building bots to take those numbers to create the income tax provision. That flows to our income tax returns, which flows through to our payment vouchers and then back to the ERP system.
Uber will be automating all of its tax reconciliations, building out tax rate forecasts, using information from strategic financing to model and forecast future budgets, and more. The system will loop in the legal and policy departments to ensure everyone is aware of when accounts are filed, provide trackers for notices and returns, and automate transfer pricing and intercompany adjustments to provide all the information an executive could need at the touch of a button.
We can quickly show upper management our global tax position. It’s all of the things that CEOs, CFOs, and others would want to be able to see.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
I started my career at KPMG in Manchester, where we were offered the opportunity to work in all areas of tax and then choose the area we wanted to focus on. This afforded me the opportunity to become a fully rounded tax professional. I do recommend to all folks that they should benefit from this as much as possible.
Over the years, I have come to more fully understand how politics, policy and tax are so closely intertwined. As you progress through your career, it is worthwhile appreciating that.
One minute with Francois Chadwick, the global head of tax and accounting at Uber.
What’s keeping you busy at work at the moment?
There has been no better time to be involved in global tax issues. So much change is occurring with tax legislation at all levels - US Federal, US State, local country and at the OECD/EU level. All of these changes need to be reviewed and interpreted as a complete jigsaw puzzle. One cannot look at each piece in isolation.
Moreover, as Uber continues to expand geographically and adds new service offerings on the platform, we have to determine the tax impact in this very dynamic environment which is constantly changing. As they say, the only constant is change!
What’s the key tax challenge facing your industry sector?
I can answer this question in one word: uncertainty. With the many new tax rules that have or may be introduced, it is incredibly difficult to model out any future tax impacts for the company. This leads to much more complex modelling using a lot of ‘what if’ scenarios.
Some potential digital tax discussions have elements that are causing us concern. We are therefore working closely with the various tax bodies and regulators around the world to create a clear picture of the impact of some items of those rules.
What advice would you give to tax policy makers?
Please take the time to understand the impacts that some suggested changes will have on business economics. We all need to avoid a situation where tax rules stifle beneficial economic growth. I think we can all agree that supporting an environment for the growth and proliferation of new companies, technologies and products will benefit an economy. We should not have a tax policy that slows or stops that.
What’s your view on tax reform for workers in the gig economy?
As the head of tax at Uber, I have always promoted a transparent principled philosophy for everything we do. We always discuss how to support and facilitate compliance by third parties who use our platform (e.g. drivers). As such, we are working closely with various governments and tax authorities on educating the independent contractors on our platform and at the same time looking at the rules for data exchanges. We want to promote compliance for everyone.
Where do you see corporate international tax reform heading?
There will be much more global transparency on everything a company does. This will lead to a number of new tax rules coming out at a regional or local country level. I hope to see a rational discussion around apportionment and allocation at the global level. I do have concerns that certain rules could lead to multiple layers of tax on the same income.
How does Uber utilise technology in the tax process?
I’ve brought together a team within the department to create and build an end-to-end solution for all of tax. Once the accounting team has booked its entries and we have those in our ERP system, we’re building bots to take those numbers to create the income tax provision. That flows to our income tax returns, which flows through to our payment vouchers and then back to the ERP system.
Uber will be automating all of its tax reconciliations, building out tax rate forecasts, using information from strategic financing to model and forecast future budgets, and more. The system will loop in the legal and policy departments to ensure everyone is aware of when accounts are filed, provide trackers for notices and returns, and automate transfer pricing and intercompany adjustments to provide all the information an executive could need at the touch of a button.
We can quickly show upper management our global tax position. It’s all of the things that CEOs, CFOs, and others would want to be able to see.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
I started my career at KPMG in Manchester, where we were offered the opportunity to work in all areas of tax and then choose the area we wanted to focus on. This afforded me the opportunity to become a fully rounded tax professional. I do recommend to all folks that they should benefit from this as much as possible.
Over the years, I have come to more fully understand how politics, policy and tax are so closely intertwined. As you progress through your career, it is worthwhile appreciating that.
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