how starbucks has redesigned tax
TRANSCRIPT
HOW STARBUCKS HAS REDESIGNED TAX
MARK HOUTZAGER,STARBUCKS EMEA TAX LEADER2 0 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 9
INTRO: WHO AM I?
STARBUCKS TRANSITIONS: OPPORTUNITIES
THE NEW TAX TEAM
LESSONS LEARNED
3 | H o w S t a r b u c k s h a s r e d e s i g n e d T a x
Mark Houtzager
VAT specialist (PWC, Deloitte, independent)
Focus on international VAT, technology
Left Europe in 1999: Asia and US
Moved to London in 2017
Currently: Head of Tax for Starbucks EMEA:
Introductions
1. Brand reputation2. Governance, strategy3. Internal and external relationshipshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/markhoutzager/
4 | H o w S t a r b u c k s h a s r e d e s i g n e d T a x
1. Closing of Amsterdam Shared Service Centre, transfer
of knowledge to London:
Tax, Accounting, Supply Chain Organization
2. Unbundling of EMEA and UK businesses
3. Sale of important business unit to Nestle
4. Sale of NL, FR businesses to Alsea
Opportunity to restructure, rehire and restart
“From Excel to Alteryx”
Transitions, transitions
5 | H o w S t a r b u c k s h a s r e d e s i g n e d T a x
Tax Compliance Manager(accountant – transfer from our external auditor)
UK VAT Manager(tax specialist – newly recruited)
EMEA Customs Manager(customs specialist – newly recruited)
Tax Senior Analyst(data specialist – transfer from our Finance department)
Tax Senior Analyst(Italian tax specialist – newly recruited)
+ Significant tax accounting support from head-office
The New Tax Team
Goals
6 | H o w S t a r b u c k s h a s r e d e s i g n e d T a x
Eight drivers for change
7 | H o w S t a r b u c k s h a s r e d e s i g n e d T a x
1. From partner driven to process driven
2. Local validation of VAT boxes mapping
3. Finance process mapping
4. Single reconciliation template
5. Improvements in tax determination
6. Masterdata cleansing
7. Data warehouse and compliance tools
8. Standardization of source data
Lessons learned
• KPIs: daily error report
• Tax as a template for improved
business governance
• Improved standing with authorities,
shorter audit response time.
• Ongoing need for tax technology
support in the Technology department
• Not yet seeing significant time
savings due to many errors
• Now it’s AP’s turn !
• More data creates more
reconciliation errors – need to iron
out
• Comfort for SAO
• Master data quality (vendor / customer)
• Impact of errors identified: incoterms, bill
to/ship to/bill from/ship from.
• Business excited about tax team sharing
relevant data (eat in / take-out).
8 | H o w S t a r b u c k s h a s r e d e s i g n e d T a x
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