Lynne Clare.

• Position: Talks about her value-added tax expertise - Interview

Lynne Clare knows value-added tax (VAT). She really knows VAT.

Currently the strategic VAT director at Sony, Clare has been involved with VAT issues for most of her career. It all began a little more than 26 years ago when she was posted to a VAT team at Her Majesty's Customs and Excise (HMCE), a department within the government of the United Kingdom. It was an experience Clare clearly appreciates: "I was very lucky to have a fabulous manager who gave me plenty of opportunities and technical challenges to sink my teeth into. I quickly realized that I had been (albeit accidentally) given a great opportunity for interesting work."

After four years working as a VAT inspector auditing the filings of a wide range of businesses, Clare worked on a short-term project at HMCE's headquarters in London and never looked back. "At the end of that project, I secured a permanent headquarters policy role at the perfect moment--the internet was starting to be interesting, and tax authorities were starting to explore its potential impact on tax revenues," she explains. She immediately became involved in reviewing challenges at both the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and European Union (EU) levels and drafting the VAT chapter for the tax document that was discussed at the 1998 OECD Ottawa conference. "I discovered that negotiating and transposing legislation was really interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed the international aspects of my role that brought me into contact with tax policymakers from around the world," she says.

Role as Policy Advisor

"My role as a policy advisor, with responsibility for the policy on 'place of supply of services,' brought me into contact with tax officials in many countries around the world through work I did as part of a four-country subgroup of the special sessions that predated WP9. In addition to the UK, the group included VAT/GST specialists from the Netherlands, Sweden, and Canada," she explains.

Prior to joining Sony, Clare worked at Vodafone's headquarters as its international VAT manager. Before that, Clare represented the UK in Brussels on EU matters as fiscal attache (official title: First Secretary Customs and Taxation) for direct taxes, indirect taxes, and customs issues, a tenure during which several legislative measures were adopted.

A Challenging VAT Issue

The most problematic VAT issue Clare has faced occurred early in her career, after she helped negotiate the EU VAT rules...