Watches of Switzerland’s Hurford: ‘Paying our fair share of taxes supports communities and society’
Fair Tax Leaders features senior professionals from across the Fair Tax Mark business community.
In this special edition for Fair Tax Week, the Watches of Switzerland Group Head of Tax Becky Hurford shares her journey to a career in tax, why she’s so glad the tax landscape has changed and how the Fair Tax Foundation helped her prepare public Country-by-Country Reporting.
FTSE 250 The Watches of Switzerland Group are the UK’s largest luxury watch retailer operating in both the UK and US. They were first certified with the Fair Tax Mark in 2022.
What first drew you to work in this field and how did you come to work in your current role?
After graduating I trained as a retail store manager, which I loved. But after a few years, I wanted a change, although I had no idea what to. A wonderful tax recruiter called me and convinced me to apply for a trainee Tax Adviser role with KPMG. It felt like a huge gamble giving up a store management role for a training contract, but I really liked the sound of the job, and I wanted a role that would be intellectually stimulating and ever-changing. I have certainly found that in a career in tax!
I specialised in corporate tax at KPMG, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant (ICAS) and Chartered Tax Adviser (CIOT) in 2010. I loved my time at KPMG, particularly working in the global M&A team of their Tokyo office. Following my maternity leave in 2014 and closure of my KPMG office, I moved to Grant Thornton where I specialised in corporate tax compliance and ended up leading the regional corporate tax compliance team as an Associate Director. I made the move to industry at the start of 2020 just before the world went mad, but I loved being part of a business instead of an external adviser. I especially love roles at international retailers as it combines my retail management training with really interesting tax issues. I joined Watches of Switzerland Group PLC as global Head of Tax in January 2024 and am very fortunate to have a five-minute commute to our Leicestershire Head Office.
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?
I remember sitting with tax legislation as a trainee while a senior manager tried to come up with a planning idea that went completely against the spirit and intention of the law. It made me feel very uncomfortable and I disliked that they were trying to look for ‘loopholes’. At this point, I genuinely questioned whether a career in tax was the right one for me as I didn’t agree with aggressive loophole tax ideas.
Thankfully, corporate social responsibility and attitudes towards responsible tax practices have evolved and we now operate in an environment where good businesses believe in doing the right thing, including in respect of taxation. This means paying the right tax, at the right time, in the right country and following the spirit and intention of tax law and not just the letter of it. I absolutely love how much the role of tax has changed since I started my tax career. I am now senior and experienced enough to be able to put my principles first and only work for businesses that share my beliefs around the importance of fair tax and corporate transparency.
What drives your business to pursue responsible tax conduct and gain the Fair Tax Mark?
At the Watches of Switzerland Group, our purpose is to wow our clients, while caring for our colleagues, our communities and our planet. We recognise that paying our fair share of taxes in the countries in which we operate is helping to support those communities and protect the most vulnerable in society. We believe that the Fair Tax Mark helps to evidence to our clients, employees and investors that we operate at the highest levels of responsible tax conduct and take our tax responsibilities seriously. The fact that it is an independent accreditation really helps to provide credibility too. It’s all very well saying that we do the right thing in respect of taxes but our Fair Tax Mark accreditation evidences that an independent social enterprise agrees.
What would your advice be to other professionals who are thinking of applying for the Fair Tax Mark?
I would strongly encourage other businesses to apply for the Fair Tax Mark. The accreditation process is easy and collaborative, and it was not onerous from an internal business time perspective. We also received excellent feedback about how we can improve our tax transparency for the future. When I joined the business, I decided to prepare and publish a Fair Tax Mark statement including public Country-by-Country (pCbC) data. The Fair Tax Foundation provided me with excellent support in developing this statement and I really appreciated their independent input.
What are your thoughts on the future of fair tax and corporate transparency?
Businesses will continue to see higher expectations from their stakeholders around ESG more generally, which will have a knock-on impact on fair tax and corporate transparency. This can only be a good thing as it will help to raise the bar for tax transparency and highlight the businesses that are not being transparent (likely because they are not playing fair, and which therefore have a competitive advantage over the businesses that are). The more businesses that can evidence that they are doing the right thing with accreditations like the Fair Tax Mark, the better. Countries will also increase regulation relating to corporate transparency (such as increased pCbCR) which will also be a positive thing.
What one sentence would your team use to describe you?
My Tax Analyst said: “An extremely helpful, thoughtful and intelligent manager and a leader who strives to continually achieve growth for the business and others”.
