After intense negotiations, nearly 150 jurisdictions agreed in January to a side-by-side package designed to accommodate the United States’ concerns about the global minimum tax framework. The agreement provides a coordinated safe harbor for certain multinationals and introduces added simplifications to reduce compliance burdens and enhance certainty. Supporters have described the package as a pragmatic step that reinforces cooperation and stability in international tax rules. Will the side-by-side approach provide a durable foundation for implementation, or does it signal a more flexible, country-specific phase of global minimum tax coordination? 

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Cara Griffith
President and CEO, Tax Analysts

As the moderator for our Taxing Issues webinars, Cara objectively analyzes issues and asks probing questions that challenge panelists to explain and defend their positions.

When she’s not moderating Taxing Issues webinars, Cara provides strategic oversight for Tax Analysts. She has led efforts to improve the Tax Notes suite of products and to aggressively pursue transparency in the administration of tax systems. Previously, Cara managed the editorial department, including the flagship daily news publications and weekly magazines. She has written for a broad range of tax policy publications, including Tax Notes State, The Tax Adviser, The Hedge Fund Law Report, and The Hill. She regularly speaks at tax conferences and other events, discussing a variety of technical tax issues as well as the need for transparency in tax administration.

Cara has a BA in political science and a BA in international studies from the University of Evansville and a JD from the George Washington University Law School.

Danielle Rolfes
Partner in charge of the KPMG Washington National Tax practice and                                              a Tax Analysts board member

Danielle Rolfes is a partner and co-leads the international tax group in KPMG’s Washington National Tax office. She joined KPMG in 2017 following her tenure as international tax counsel at the Treasury Department. 

Danielle advises clients on U.S. international tax matters, including tax planning and controversies concerning their structures, operations, and transactions. She has extensive experience advising on international tax policy, tax treaties, the character and source of income, subpart F, expense allocation, and foreign tax credits. More recently, she has focused on helping clients navigate U.S. tax reform, including the base erosion and anti-abuse tax, the regimes for global intangible low-taxed income and foreign-derived intangible income, and the limitations on the foreign tax credit. 

Before joining KPMG, Danielle served as an executive in the Treasury Office of Tax Policy, where she was international tax counsel, leading Treasury’s international tax legal staff and advising the assistant secretary for tax policy and deputy assistant secretary for international tax affairs on all aspects of international tax policy. 

Before working at Treasury, Danielle was a partner at a law firm, where she advised multinational corporations on international tax planning, controversy, and compliance matters, as well as on tax accounting methods. 

Danielle is a frequent speaker and writer on a variety of international tax topics. She is the author of numerous articles and An Analysis of FIN 48 – Accounting for Uncertain Tax Positions, which was intended to make the accounting for uncertain tax positions accessible to lawyers. 

Danielle received her bachelor’s degree from Wright State University; her JD from Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review; and her LLM in taxation from Georgetown University Law Center. 

Mounia Benabdallah
Partner in Baker McKenzie’s international tax practice group

Mounia Benabdallah is a partner in Baker McKenzie’s international tax practice in New York, focusing on European tax, global tax policy, and pillar 2. She has extensive experience advising U.S. multinationals on cross-border mergers and acquisitions; global restructurings; and the intersection of U.S., European, and Netherlands tax law. Mounia is consistently recognized in  International Tax Review’s “Women in Tax Leaders” guide and is regarded as a leading adviser on international tax policy. 

John Connors
Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce's Global Tax Commission

John Connors is now senior tax counsel at Vodafone Group PLC, having been group tax director there for more than a decade following five years as head of tax strategy and policy.   

John also represents global business interests as chair of the Global Tax Commission for the International Chamber of Commerce, is a council member and chair of the Audit and Risk Committee at the University of Sussex, and is a member of the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ Tax Law Review Committee.  

John originally trained as a tax inspector with HMRC, working in compliance, policy, and international divisions, and he spent three years on secondment to the European Commission in Brussels, primarily supporting the work on the EU Code of Conduct for business taxation, and a similar period as head of HM Treasury’s international corporate tax policy unit.   

Isaac Wood
Acting Treasury deputy international tax counseI

Isaac Wood is an attorney-adviser in the Treasury Office of Tax Policy. Isaac also serves as U.S. delegate to the OECD’s Working Party 11, which carries out the technical work on the pillar 2 global minimum tax.  

Before joining the Treasury Department, Isaac was in private practice and clerked at the D.C. Circuit. Isaac received both his JD and undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia.