Tax network page for tax professionals on Facebook

Facebook is clearly the No.1 place for social media interaction, with 500m users globally and something approaching 25m users in the UK, depending on which research statistics you rely on. The key forum is that of socialising informally with friends on all subjects to do with your life, however to what extent is it used for business or career networking? I think currently it is used for this on a limited basis because people are keeping their life social networking separate from their work social networking, which they would tend to do on platforms such as LinkedIn.

But will this change, and will people tap more into the potential of Facebook for business purposes and for career networking?

In relation to this, a new Facebook page has been recently set up by Talentpool for tax professionals. The page is Working in Tax - Your View, and it is for tax professionals to view and comment on all issues relating to working in tax. Will be interesting to see if it gathers momentum. Please go to the Page and 'Like' it.

SAP-Indirect Tax skills in demand

Working on a number of opportunities in the ERP-VAT / Indirect Tax space at a range of levels, both at the Consultant level (£40-50k) and more experienced Manager levels (£70k+). Locations can be for experts in London / SE in the UK, or Belgium / Netherlands.

Here is the outline of one active role:

ERP-Indirect Tax Implementations Consultant
Based London or Benelux countries | £55 - 75k + Bens

Opportunity to work on high-end VAT system implementations projects with a small successful consultancy. With offices in the UK and overseas, they already have an enviable client base, typically FTSE 100 groups, Europe-wide listed and large private organisations. Due to an influx of new client projects, they are now looking to build up further their ERP-VAT systems expert resource to work on delivery of projects and proposals. This project role, based either in UK or a West Europe location, will work within a tax-IT project team assessing clients' VAT systems and processes and then delivering on a variety of system enhancements and improvements, either to enhance a SAP-FI-tax scenario or sometimes involving implementations of tax engine bolt-ons e.g. Sabrix or Vertex. To meet the challenges of this specialist role, your background could fall into one of two categories - either technical VAT background, with international / EU VAT compliance experience, together with hands-on experience of VAT systems, and exposure to how VAT works within a SAP / ERP / finance environment. Alternatively, you could have specialist experience in the SAP/Oracle-VAT space, having worked on ERP-tax sensitisation projects and/or configuration of Sabrix/Vertex within a large business. In addition, this role will require strong client-facing skills, with the ability to assess client needs and help to build value and effectiveness within clients' tax and finance functions.

For a confidential discussion on this or for more information, please contact us here

Future operations of the in-house Tax Function

By Simon Godley

As a recruitment specialist in the tax systems, process & technology market, I am curious and intrigued by how the operations of the tax function (particularly for the large multinational) will change over time, say over the next 5 years. I would also like to consider over the next 10 years, but that could be somewhat crystal ball stuff.

Should we expect SAP and tax to be fully interfaced?

Should we expect the tax database engine to be a more 'mainstream' technology?

Should we expect tax determination and tax return software to work smoothly together without any manual interventions?

Will an IT system have sufficient data and information built into it to remove the need for any human judgement on tax figures or disclosures?

Will a Group Tax Director be reviewing the tax compliance status for different countries / entities on his/her iPad via a cloud service?

Many contacts of mine in the market are very certain that tax systems are the future of the tax function, but I'm interested to know how this may unfold.
Given I am talking of these developments now, they are undoubtedly on our horizon, if not in some cases already happening.

Any views on this from people close to these technologies greatly appreciated.