Cynthia R. Johnson
Cynthia Johnson is an accomplished indirect tax executive, transformation leader, and strategic advisor with more than three decades of experience across energy, renewable fuels, manufacturing, consulting, software, and Big Four environments. She is the Founder of CONTINUAX LLC, an independent indirect tax and tax technology consulting firm that helps organizations stabilize, modernize, and strengthen tax operations.
Her expertise spans indirect tax strategy, compliance, technology, governance, audit defense, and operating-model improvement across U.S. sales and use tax, gross receipts tax, motor fuel, jet fuel, excise tax, Canadian GST/HST determination, and SaaS taxability.
Cynthia has generated and preserved significant enterprise value through tax recovery, audit defense, process control, and technology modernization. She secured more than $200 million in federal jet fuel and sustainable aviation fuel excise credits and refunds and directed a $44 million federal bond release, converting tax savings into operating cash and improved liquidity. During IRS examinations, she defended more than $67 million in federal jet fuel and renewable fuel tax credits, preserving 100% of claimed value through coordinated work with Accounting, Aviation, Operations, and Compliance teams.
Her technology leadership includes directing indirect tax requirements, data migration, testing, and go-live procedures for a multi-year SAP ERP transformation spanning U.S. and cross-border transactions in Canada, Asia, and Finland. She has led and supported enterprise tax technology initiatives involving Avalara, ONESOURCE, SAP, and Microsoft reporting tools. Her work has delivered zero indirect tax determination failures at go-live, reduced external compliance preparation hours by 60%, and lowered provider costs by 58%.
Across her career, Cynthia has strengthened audit outcomes, compliance operations, and organizational capability. She overturned an Illinois direct-pay assessment exceeding $3 million and converted it into a net credit through detailed manufacturing-exemption analysis, and she reduced a Texas manufacturing audit assessment by 75%. At Shell Oil Company, she helped re-engineer customer onboarding across Sales and Contracts, eliminating 80% of incorrect tax configurations and billing errors while recovering 95% of outstanding accounts receivable.
Her background includes leadership roles and engagements with Neste, Xero, SABIC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Avalara, CITGO Petroleum Corporation, Shell Oil Company, and independent consulting clients. She has governed tax determination across more than 12,000 U.S. jurisdictions, led offshore compliance transitions and knowledge transfer, managed and developed teams, and built sustainable controls through standardized procedures, training, and succession planning.