Tavin Skoff

About Tavin Skoff

In today’s globally dispersed organizations, leading a best-in-class tax function requires a leader capable of operating at strategic, tactical, and operational levels cross-functionally beyond the confines of traditional roles. It also requires an independent mind to be able to deal with current and emerging international tax regulations in a creative way to protect a company’s interests, even when it comes to overriding the experts’ advice. As an extraordinarily nimble and creative leader, who practices collaborative authority across silos to get things done, I bring a unique and proven set of leadership talents to my role: What I do? I lead the tax function as a business—not merely as a defensive obligation—transforming it into a profit center and a valued business partner in high-tech, software, hardware, and solutions integration industries contributing to the bottom line. Why I do it? I always like to find a way to creatively argue avoiding a certain obvious tax liability and win; this is what drives me. Also, I get an inner sense of purpose from the iterative process of continuous improvement. I like building things, improving processes, and enjoy the challenge and satisfaction of solving complex and challenging problems. Who am I? A highly creative, hands-on, and resourceful leader in corporate taxation with over 20 years running the tax function as a business. How I do it? First, I start out with determining and prioritizing the potential opportunities and issues. Next, I work with and empower my team to craft a set of strategies for solving the issues and realizing the opportunities. This includes building valuable partnerships with stakeholders. The team then delivers on the strategies, iteratively improving their skills and partnerships with the rest of the company, from adapting to the insights gained through the journey using agile principles. How well do I do it? In my most recent job, leading the tax function at Enphase energy, in the first year alone, my actions added $43M to the bottom line through a different approach to how the Department traditionally operated. In another instance, I used an innovative approach to become the first-ever taxpayer to receive a tax deduction relating to a DoJ criminal settlement, since the law was enacted in 1954, providing a $267M earnings benefit to the company.

Experience

1. Director of Tax Credits

   Hito, Llc

   Oct 2022 — Present · San Francisco, CA, US

   Member of company leadership team in a boutique tax consulting firm assisting clients obtaining tax benefits. • Reduced project completion time by 50% through process improvements. • Increased revenue by inspiring the culture into a process-based, resourceful, and strategic mindset.

Education

• University of San Diego School of Law

  Doctor of Law (JD), Tax, Estates & Trusts

  1995 — 1998

• University of Southern California

  Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Management and Organization

  1988 — 1993

• University of San Diego School of Law

  Master of Laws (LLM), Taxation

  1998 — 1999