Knowing When to Point Out the Risks—Philip Parkinson of Klick

When was the first moment that made you feel confident about your work as a tax pro?

A few years after joining an insurance company in 2009, the Canadian insurance tax practice leader and his team from one of the big four came out to our offices to sell us the elephant—or in tax geek speak, he hopes we would pursue one of his company’s latest and greatest cross-border reinsurance plans.

During the Powerpoint slide presentation, I finally realized I knew some things when I started pointing out risks and flaws in the proposed US tax planning aspects of the opportunity, which irritated the partner but got kudos from my boss. One of my old bosses from Ernst & Young was right—he told me early in my career that it takes about five years to become comfortable in tax.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.

Author Information

Philip Parkinson is director of tax and head of global taxation at Klick, a multinational marketing agency and commercialization partner for life sciences in Toronto. He is a member of the Tax Executives Institute’s (TEI) Toronto chapter’s board of directors.