Global Tax 50 2015: Jean-Claude Juncker

Jean-Claude Juncker was also in the Global Tax 50 2014

Poor Jean-Claude Juncker! Not only has he missed out on the top spot of this year's Global Tax 50, which he held in 2014, but it seems that he's also been unable to escape the controversy which put him there in the first place.

Luckily for the embattled Luxembourgish European Commission President, he has managed to retain his position at the helm of the EU, despite calls for his resignation peppering his tenure.

Within days of being elected in November 2014, Juncker was immediately besieged by calls for his head as details of Luxembourg's tax rulings were released to the press, via a PwC Luxembourg whistleblower (now facing criminal charges) and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

After surviving the initial maelstrom, he remained illuminatingly quiet during Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager's state aid investigations into tax rulings granted by several European member states – including his native Luxembourg.

However, he was thrust back into the limelight in September 2015 when he was forced to deny involvement in 'sweetheart deals' in his own country, which he had governed in one form or another for almost 20 years.

"The Luxembourg tax authorities are very allergic to the idea of political interference," Juncker told a committee of MEPs investigating the LuxLeaks scandal. "I think you have an exaggerated idea of the power of the prime minister in this particular respect."

Luckily for Juncker, his support among the European Parliament's two largest political blocs – the European People's Party and the Socialists and Democrats – ensured that the grilling he faced by the MEP committee was barely enough to warm him up, with only the far-left and far-right flicking flames in his direction.