Vattenfall’s Tegelberg: ‘The tax transparency journey will continue’

Fair Tax Leaders features senior professionals from across the Fair Tax Mark accredited business community.
Here, Vattenfall’s Head of Tax, Anders Tegelberg, sets out how collaboration has brought the tax and sustainability teams together and helped build Vattenfall’s status as a fair tax exemplar.
The first business to be accredited against the Fair Tax Mark Global Multinational Business Standard, Vattenfall is one of Europe’s largest producers and retailers of electricity and heat, with significant markets in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, UK, Denmark and Finland.
Tell us about your professional journey. What first drew you to work in this field and how did you come to work in your current role?
I have a financial background and started as an auditor before joining Vattenfall 24 years ago as a controller. After a year I was offered a new finance manager role in a business unit. I liked the role and the opportunity it gave to develop the function together with colleagues.
I continued after that heading the parent company finance department before taking on the Head of Tax role in 2008. It was an opportunity for a group role within the company and to further develop the tax function together with tax colleagues.
The tax area is, for me, a very broad role of responsibilities and tasks that impacts on business, internal and external stakeholders and the financials for the group.
How has the role of the tax or finance team changed in this time, especially in relation to stakeholder expectations around fair tax and corporate transparency?
We started around 2017 with tax CSR discussions, together with our sustainability function, to learn more about this area. We noticed that we had a lot in place already with a tax policy and voluntary disclosure around taxes paid etc, but that we needed to learn from each other as the tax function is not a sustainability expert function and vice versa.
Both within the company, management and board, and from the external community, we are also expected to be a role model in this area. That was a new path to pursue within tax CSR, that we identified we should invest time and resources in.
What drives your business to pursue responsible tax conduct and gain the Fair Tax Mark?
Responsible tax conduct comes from the area of tax CSR but also the ESG path so there is a need to develop tools and methods to verify practice. We have been part of several initiatives in this area and when I became aware of the Fair Tax Mark, I reached out and asked if Vattenfall could be accredited.
I was very pleased when certification opened up to companies across the world, and that Vattenfall was the first company headquartered outside the UK to be Fair Tax Mark accredited.
What would your advice be to other professionals who are thinking of applying for the Fair Tax Mark?
Some cost and time are invested from the company but the positive return you get is valuable. It provides an established standard assessment process verifying the already available data and disclosures. Based on the assessment process, you will get both insights into areas for improvement, and a Fair Tax Mark that stands for a certain level of tax transparency. This can be used for internal and external communications purposes.
What are your thoughts on the future of fair tax and corporate transparency?
The tax transparency journey will definitely continue. Public Country-by-Country Reporting will be one step in this, but there is a need for further voluntary or potentially legally required reporting standards in this area.
What one word or phrase would your team use to describe you?
Hopefully then will tell you that I am, despite my age, a modern tax manager who is eager to develop the function together with the team.