Karin Li.

• Position: Perrigo Co. tax manager - Interview

Is there a connection between tax and math? To Karin Li, there certainly is. During her MBA studies, her professor assigned her a research project related to estate tax law, leading Li to make a discovery that would impact her professional life. "I found tax to be incredibly complex and technical. It interested me, since it involved both math and law," she explains.

Transfer Pricing Guru

Fast-forward to today. Li, tax manager, transfer pricing, at Perrigo Company PLC, is, not surprisingly, deep in the weeds of transfer pricing, which she finds to be "extremely dynamic ... touching laws in different jurisdictions." Transfer pricing (TP) issues, she says, have become a key discussion point for all multinational tax players. "Along with comprehensive exposure to all aspects of corporate tax, I found my calling in transfer pricing. My past experience showed me the value of work experience within the decision-making of transfer pricing and how it impacts tax strategy," she explains.

The most interesting tax law issue she's encountered at her current job? Her response is straightforward: the global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI), base erosion and anti-abuse tax (BEAT), and foreign-derived intangible income (FDII) provisions under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Fast-Paced Environment

Li enjoys the fast-paced environment at Perrigo, a pharmaceutical and consumer health care products company that she describes as "full of highly effective individuals." Li also likes working on process improvement projects. "One example that comes to mind," she says, "is, in collaboration with our finance team, we created a semiautomated data collection process in the form of an intercompany transaction matrix. I was able to track IC transactions not only for annual TP documentation, but also for BEAT and FDII. The semiautomated data collection process enhanced consistency of the data. It also reduced forty percent of the preparation time for summarizing IC transactions for TP documentation."

Impact of TEI

TEI, Li says, is a great...