Anthony Cohn

Head of Tax - Strategy and Disputes @BAT

London, GB

I was responsible for developing and implementing a new tax dispute risk and control process to manage tax risks of £3bn on a real time basis. This creates an early warning mechanism to the Corporate Finance Committee ensuring P&L and cash sensitivities are available for cascade to senior management. This also included roll out of tax dispute management guidelines to over 300 finance managers with clear measurement dashboards. Netherlands: I managed trial preparation in the Court of Appeal across multiple transfer pricing issues with a maximum exposure of £1.4bn – this involved managing the input and collaboration of several law firms and advisors as well as keeping the BAT CFO and CEO updated of developments on the litigation strategy. I have also been responsible for managing the regional effective tax rate with a tax charge of over £800mn; this has resulted in adopting flexible approaches to ensure that the Group is able to meet its ETR guidance by either accelerating planning opportunities or justifying additional provisions. I manage regional cash repatriation to the Centre in terms of trademark royalties & other group service charges as well as compliance to group dividend guidelines. This has enabled BAT’s Treasury function to receive around £0.5bn of additional central liquidity annually. I was responsible for developing and implementing a new tax dispute risk and control process to manage tax risks of £3bn on a real time basis. This creates an early warning mechanism to the Corporate Finance Committee ensuring P&L and cash sensitivities are available for cascade to senior management. This also included roll out of tax dispute management guidelines to over 300 finance managers. I manage the professional development of 60 tax managers across the Americas and Europe. In 2024 I managed a process to create a new senior tax role covering Latin America and relocated a tax talent from Germany to Brazil.