Exclusive: Connors fights Vodafone’s corner
12 August 2011
Salman Shaheen - ITR
In an exclusive interview with Salman Shaheen of International Tax Review, John Connors, director of tax strategy and policy at Vodafone, hits out at his company’s critics and UK Uncut and explains his stance on topical issues such as country-by-country reporting and ADR.
John Connors came to speak at the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation’s summer conference in July about a year after Vodafone, his employer, was plunged into controversy in the UK over its £1.25 billion settlement with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in a dispute concerned with controlled foreign companies. The settlement resulted in protests by the UK Uncut group of anti-tax avoidance campaigners and, what Connors argues, misinformation spread by Private Eye and the press. In many ways, Connors is ideally placed to defend his company from the allegations it has faced in the media. He is a former tax inspector with 20 years’ experience and finished his HMRC career as director of the large business and employers customer unit before moving to Vodafone in 2007.
“I see myself first and foremost as a tax professional,” says Connors over a glass of water...
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