On November 16^th, 2018, a Business Meeting (Erfahrungsaustausch) with a number of large MNE was held at the WU Transfer Pricing Center at the Institute of Austrian and International Tax Law, Vienna University of Economics and Business. The meeting covered several topics; one of which was “Digitization and the Tax Function in MNE”.

The speaker for this topic was Prof. Dr. Robert Risse. For almost 30 years, Prof. Risse has benn working at Henkel, one of the biggest chemical multinationals in Germany, based in Düsseldorf. As a Corporate VP Tax & Trade, Prof. Risse is responsible for taxation and trade within Henkel. He started his career in a medium-sized tax advisory firm in Bonn, followed by experiences in the tax departments of Kaufhof Holding AG, internationally in Mannesmann AG, and subsequently within the Deutsche Post AG.

Henkel has been working successfully for many years with digitization topics in the tax function, and Prof. Risse presented his experiences with digitization and tax. The presentation was structured in answering defined questions and was followed by discussions which showed that digitization in the tax function is a topic all MNE are very intensively working wit...