Listen to this podcast:

https://tax-stories.simplecast.com/episodes/christian-kaeser-siemens-germany-on-integrating-virtual-and-physical-worlds

EPISODE SUMMARY

Christian is a global head of tax @Siemens in charge of some 650 tax people, tax law professor & Dr., lecturing at Vienna and Freiburg Universities, president of IFA Germany, Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce Tax Commission, Chairman of the supervisory board of WTS tax network, living an extremely busy life in Germany.

EPISODE NOTES

Among others we covered the following topics.

  • Lobbying the right things only.
  • Has Christian made a family tree? Any relations in the family to cheese making?
  • Why did Christian go against his father’s (also a lawyer) wish not to study law? And why tax law?
  • What makes Christian happy?
  • Why Christian hates Twitter and business books?
  • Christian told about his podcasting experience (in German) – it is available here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2hWBK0xOAmVhR5003nFPj7?si=d04c24fb0c154c7b
  • What Siemens products does he have at home?
  • What is now going on at Siemens with all the virtual madness – NFTs, virtual currencies, metaverses, AI, robots?
  • How does the Russian war in Ukraine impact the work?
  • How does ESG affect the business of Siemens?
  • WTS international tax network originated from Siemens tax dptm. How does Christian see pros and cons of WTS comparing to Big4s?
  • How does a great external tax advisor look like?
  • IFA Germany this year is hosting the global congress this September (gathering ~2k tax professionals from around the world). Christian gave us a great teaser for those still considering if to go.
  • Of course, there was a short tax related story as well.
  • We also spoke about a German village Norderfriedrichskoog, which for some 10 years until 2004 did not apply local business tax. (BTW, if anyone would like to practice longer German words, please have a look at this video of Christoph Waltz Gives Jimmy Fallon a German Words Quiz: https://youtu.be/F0jr-HQeT74)
  • How much in reality business decisions at Siemens, but also within multinationals in general are taken based on tax incentives or loopholes?
  • Does Christian think it’s possible to reform the tax systems so they become really simple?
  • And, like all the guests, also Christian gave his version of meaning of life.