30 Seconds With Andy Hewitt, Head of Tax, ASOS

Andy Hewitt, Head of Tax at ASOS shares his Transfer Pricing insights in our latest 30 Second interview.

What are you currently working on?

Aside from figuring out how we might deal with country by country reporting,  we’ve just finished a major documentation exercise around our current entities.  We’re now working with our logistics teams to figure out how we can transfer price around potential changes to our supply chain, in particular around how we can reach a transfer price that can work from both a direct tax and a customs duty perspective.

What is the biggest challenge facing Transfer Pricing executives in your sector now?

Keeping pace with an ever changing business environment and technology developments that mean what we do from a transfer pricing perspective this now may need to change in a year’s time.

What should a successful transfer pricing strategy look like?

It be simple to implement and operate, flexible enough to allow for a degree of change in the way the entity does business and, most importantly, should support the business in its aims for a particular market.  We try to avoid situations where we have to advise the business not to do something that makes business sense due to the transfer pricing consequences.

What in your view is the main practical challenge of BEPS for heads of TP?

 Dealing with the uncertainty, particularly as even when the OECD gets some clarity around what the policy should be we can’t be certain as to whether and how individual territories will implement those policies.

Arm’s length or formulary apportionment?

My natural inclination is to say Arm’s length, it does seem to me as if some of the noises coming out of the BEPS project look a little like formulary apportionment by stealth.

What advice would you give an aspiring TP professional?

Firstly, understand your business and what it needs to achieve.  Secondly, understand what the systems that operate your business are capable of dealing with and thirdly be prepared to be flexible and adaptable.

Tell us a little known fact about yourself.

I once had the misguided belief that I could be a stand-up comedian, and even performed several times at the Edinburgh festival.  I am possibly more nervous about sitting on a panel at this conference than I ever was then.