End-to-end indirect tax technical and advisory responsibility for Maersk and Maersk entities in the Africa region

I am a member of the Maersk global indirect tax team and in charge of indirect tax in the Africa region. I offer tax technical advice on all business matters including business structuring, tax risk management and tax audit management. Working with other specialist functional tax teams such as direct tax, transfer pricing, compliance, controversy and external tax advisors where necessary, I ensure all business initiatives are thoroughly reviewed from an indirect tax perspective to ensure optimal tax set up for all Maersk operations in the region. I also ensure that tax risks are thoroughly reviewed and reported and tax authority audits and disputes are managed and handled correctly.

I was in charge of all end-to-end tax matters for the Maersk Group in the East Africa Area covering Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Rwanda.

I was the VAT Compliance Manager at GE East Africa Services Ltd, the Centre of Excellence for GE operations in Sub-Sahara Africa covering the following countries – Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana. My current roles and responsibilities include:• Ensuring VAT and other associated tax returns for the GE businesses operating in the region are filed and paid on time; • Conducting risk based reviews of tax returns and associated processes with strong emphasis on VAT and equivalent consumption taxes;• Analysis of tax returns for accuracy using thorough and indepth knowledge of local tax regulations applicable in different African countries;• Providing support during external audits and revenue authority inspections. Where other taxes are involved to liaise with responsible individuals to ensure their issues are also adequately and timely resolved;• Responding to routine revenue authority queries;• Liaising with various in-country tax advisors to ensure that returns filed with the authorities are accurate and adhere to the specific country’s tax regulations;• Training of finance and business functions on various VAT issues and other tax matters that they need to be aware of in performing their duties;• Training of finance and business teams on the use of GE’s online tax tools;• Review of tax accounting to ensure adherence to local tax laws and internationally accepted best practices;• Review of accounting practices and output from different finance systems for adherence to local tax laws;• To influence government policy in consultation with other industry stakeholders through various lobby initiatives; • Liaising and updating the global team on issues encountered in the performance of my duties.

Ensuring that the various diverse GE businesses in diverse tax jurisdictions are compliant with the local indirect tax legislation.

Tax compliance and advisory services