Teri Hull.

PositionDart Container Corp. vice president of taxation - Interview

Teri Hull's interest in tax issues was sparked by dry cleaning. Yes, dry cleaning. Her father owned a dry cleaning business when she was young, and she often tagged along on Saturday mornings. But it wasn't the back of the store, with all those hangers and clothes, that intrigued Hull; it was the front. "I like numbers and would spend my time at the cash register checking out customers and assisting the front manager with tallying the day's receipts and preparing the bank deposit," she explains.

Fast-forward to Notre Dame, where she was totally into tax classes, with their combination of numbers and research. It was at Notre Dame that Hull, now vice president, tax, at Dart Container Corporation, volunteered at VITA, the IRS' Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, as part of a tax class and became hooked on the sometimes fascinating world of tax.

One of those fascinating areas, for Hull, is transaction work. "I love working through puzzles, evaluating the opportunities and issues, and working with a team to develop solutions on transactions and their tax implications," she says. Transaction work, she explains, is incredibly interesting, and she views it as being layered on top of other tax technical areas, like corporate, partnership, and international work. "It provides invaluable opportunities to work with and learn from others," Hull adds.

The Dart Experience

Dart acquired Solo Cup in 2012, and the development and design of the integration were particularly challenging and rewarding, according to Hull. Dart doubled in size when it acquired Solo, she notes, and is continuously evolving.

However, Hull says, some of the most interesting areas in tax are situations intrinsic to a company and its operations. "Dart is completing a rollout of SAP in 2018, and I and the tax team have a renewed appreciation for the interconnectedness of all functions of the company operations. Like most other tax professionals, one of our current top priorities is modeling and evaluating the impacts of tax reform on the business," Hull says. "Working with a talented team at Dart and the growth opportunities tax provided me and other tax team members have been rewarding," she continues. "My original role at Dart was tax compliance manager. I really wanted to do tax planning, however, and my supervisor was supportive as long as the compliance role didn't suffer. After a few years, I was spending much more of my time on tax planning strategies than on tax...

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