Services Industries group and the International Tax Services group. He then moved to the U.S Tax Desk in Milan, Italy as a Tax Manager; and he also worked on the U.S. Tax Desk in London, England as a Senior Tax Manager. Thereafter, Robert returned to the International Tax Services Group as a Senior Tax Manager in New York, New York. Robert Tharaeparambil earned his Bachelor of Business Administration at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana; he earned his law degree from the American University-Washington College of Law, Washington DC; and he earned his Master of Science in Taxation at Fordham University-Graduate School of Business, New York, New York. Robert is also a member of the New York Bar Association.
KJ- Please describe News Corporation to the readers of the Tax Intelligence Report.
RT- We are a diversified media company headquartered in New York with more than $30B in revenue and operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and Latin America. Through numerous acquisitions, investments and joint ventures, News Corporation has transformed itself into a diversified company at the forefront of the global media and entertainment industry. It operates businesses in several segments including the movie industry with Twentieth Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures, the television industry with FOX, FOX News Network, the FX Channel and the FOX Business Channel, publishing with HarperCollins, newspapers in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia including the Wall Street Journal, the Times of London and the Australian, satellite television with SkyItalia, BSkyB and STAR, and the internet with MySpace.com and hulu.com. We are a vertically integrated media company with a global footprint.
KJ- What can you tell us about the company that is most interesting?
RT- Rupert Murdoch built this company from a single newspaper in Australia and has succeeded in building the organization into a truly global enterprise. He leveraged his newspaper business to identify synergies and expand into new and diversified businesses. With almost everything the company started, there were the naysayers who said it couldn’t be done, yet he accomplished his goals. For instance, in the 1980s, he was told that there was no need for a fourth network when ABC, NBC, and CBS were the dominant “Big 3”. Today, FOX is the number one television network. In the 1990s, they told him that there was no room for another news network besides CNN. Today, FOX News is the number one cable news network. In 2007, he was told Dow Jones wasn’t for sale and later that same year we completed the $5 billion acquisition. You can never really tell what’s going to happen next around here but I have no doubt it will be exciting.
KJ- People have learned from their experiences; what have you learned from your career experience at News Corporation?
RT- News Corporation is not your average company. What I mean is that most companies do not offer the opportunity to work on the scope and scale of business transactions that our company undertakes during the course of a year. When you go through even one year of transactions with this company, you realize that you have numerous transactions which have tax planning and tax accounting aspects in multiple jurisdictions. The breadth of the global footprint we have, the type of transactions we are involved in and the caliber of the company's finance organization make this one of the best experiences a tax professional can have. I'm fortunate to be part of a talented team of tax professionals here at News. Whether we’re working on a new acquisition, a divestiture, starting a new business or expanding an existing one, you just cannot compare working in this environment with working anywhere else.
KJ- What did you gain from your experience at Levi Strauss?
RT- This was a wonderful opportunity to work with Paul Smith who is the VP of Tax at Levi Strauss in San Francisco . I had previously worked with Paul in Milan , Italy on Ernst & Young’s U.S. Tax Desk. Prior to joining Levi’s, Paul was the National FAS 109 Leader for Ernst & Young. He had been recruited to join Levi’s after the company had received a material weakness letter. He recruited me to come there to be part of a turnaround team at the company as the Director of Tax Planning. The goal of the team he assembled was to address the material weakness. Together with another recently recruited EY alumnus, Ariel Lewkowicz, who was the Director of Tax Reporting, and the hardworking people in Levi’s tax department, we were very successful as a team in addressing the material weakness letter and were able to get rid of it in less than a year. Importantly, we were able to not only completely address all of the material weaknesses but also ensure there were no significant deficiencies as well which is an outstanding result for any company.
KJ- This is an issue that many companies are faced with so I want to ask you what your team did to solve this problem.
RT- What we were we able to do was review all of the existing procedures and tax processes that were in place and make the necessary changes to address the shortfalls. We then demonstrated to the auditors that we had made significant changes in the level of tax controls for all the tax processes including the tax accounting process, the tax compliance process, the tax planning process and the tax audit process. We made certain that, on a global basis and in all of the jurisdictions and areas that we oversaw, we had put effective tax controls in place. These controls allowed us to track these processes on a regular and systematic basis. The opportunity to be a part of this team was an incredibly valuable experience and being able to help a great company like Levi Strauss achieve this extraordinary result was an exceptional feeling.
KJ- What was the value of your tax career experience at EY? In fact, you worked for EY in New York, Milan and London.
RT- During my career at Ernst & Young, I was exposed to a broad range of industries, issues, transactions and experiences and had the opportunity to work with some of the top tax professionals in international tax, capital markets and mergers & acquisitions. One of the most valuable experiences, however, was the four years I spent on the U.S. Tax Desk in Milan and in London. There are advantages to living and working abroad in your tax career because of the breadth of tax issues this exposes you to. Often times when you speak with other tax professionals you have a tendency to speak in code sections when you are discussing transactions. However, when you are in Italy, for example, and speaking to someone about a transaction, they don’t particularly care about the tax code sections you’re referring to. You need to take a step further and explain to them the concepts and the issues behind them. You are communicating with not only a non-US audience but frequently a non- tax audience as well and you need to be able to explain complex issues in a way in that's relatable and understandable. Today, I find this acquired skill to be a very valuable asset because you are frequently working with people in legal or accounting or treasury or a business unit and you need to remember to speak with them in a language they can understand. These people are not concerned with tax code sections; they just want to know whether they can get a transaction done. The opportunity to work in these different jurisdictions, to work across different cultures and, in Italy in particular, to work in another language was an invaluable experience for me.
KJ- You had a wonderful opportunity to work for EY in New York, Milan , London and then back to New York . Please tell me about the program EY has in place to allow you to move around to these different locations but still stay with the same firm.
RT- EY has a Desk program that is simply best in class. The EY U.S. Desk network has onsite U.S. tax professionals situated around the world in places like London, Paris, Milan, Amsterdam, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney who can assist clients with U.S. tax advice on a real time basis. They similarly have a Foreign Desk network in New York and around the world with tax professionals from many foreign jurisdictions. For tax professionals who are willing to work in this program and on these rotations, it provides an invaluable opportunity to expand your base of experiences and enhance your technical skills. It also works well for the firm because it actually builds better client relationships globally. I would highly recommend an international assignment to any tax professional looking to grow their career.
KJ- Robert, thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. Your perspective is valuable to the Tax Intelligence Report readers around the world. We genuinely appreciate the time you gave to share your tax career with us.
Kathleen Jennings (KJ)
Editor, The Tax Intelligence Report
Kathleen@etsearch.com
Robert Tharaeparambil-Vice President-Global Tax
News Corporation
New York, New York
If you would like to send a private email to Robert, please contact Kathleen Jennings at Kathleen@etsearch.com.
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