In-House Tax Blog

Why bother using a recruiter?

2012-02-16T18:39:00.005Z

By Simon Godley

In all hiring processes, there is an organisation (Client) trying to recruit someone (Candidate). There are many strong arguments for a Client to employ an external recruiter to find suitable candidates, however this article addresses the benefits and value to a Candidate i.e. someone considering a job move, and in particular someone (e.g. corporate tax accountant or tax software consultant) looking for a move in a very niche market.

I believe that you have to become progressively more specialist or niche in a certain field in order to keep pushing your career onwards and upwards. And operating in a specialist market (such as transfer pricing or VAT systems within the tax world), you get to think that you know all the companies and players in that market. So when it comes to the point where you either want to, or have to, look for opportunities outside your company, you may feel there’s no need reaching out to a recruiter (or going through a recruiter / headhunter) because you can do it yourself.

Well here’s 5 points to consider:

• Market Knowledge - At the early stages of discussion, a recruiter who knows your market well will be able to give you a snapshot of what options are out there. They may be cautious in revealing company names initially, but you will get a useful view of how in demand your background/experience is. Only a small proportion of openings are advertised through the press or social media, so there could be roles in your market that are very much hidden from your field of view. Also, a very experienced recruiter in your market will be able to offer some broader career advice, and give you a view on which moves are achievable for you, and in a lot of cases the ones that are not.

• CV presentation - A recruiter can give you advice on your CV, and will in most cases change its presentation before putting across to a client. First impressions from someone glancing a CV can be crucial to success, and it needs to hold their attention for sufficient time for them to want to pick up the phone or arrange a meeting.

• Getting that first meeting – in the past you may have made approaches to companies directly, either e-mailing someone you know or applying via a careers portal, but how often has this led to getting a first interview? Does it feel like your CV is going into a black hole, and no-one is seeing it? Good recruiters know how to get candidates first interviews, and without getting that first meeting, you won’t get hired. Also, how will you prepare for the interview? Do you know the background of the person interviewing you, and what sort of questions they might ask? A recruiter close to the client will know this.

• Getting some useful (or any) feedback – working through a reliable and trusted recruiter, this will help to keep communication lines open and keep the process moving. One think I hear time and time again from candidates is that they didn’t get any feedback after an interview, and just didn’t seem to find out what went wrong. This can happen going direct or through a recruiter, but a recruiter can push to get some useful feedback. And if it’s a ‘no’ after a first or second interview, a client is much more comfortable delivering bad news (and the reason for bad news) to an intermediary than direct to your face.

• Negotiation on salary offer – and with this, I’ve saved the best until last. The most crucial part of the hiring process is getting an offer at the most attractive salary level, and at a level at which you are happy to accept. This part of the process can only be done smoothly through a skillful middle-man i.e. with a recruiter. You may think that a company or hiring authority knows what to offer because they know your value in the market, but in reality they don’t. They need advice and guidance on where to pitch a role, particularly in a very specialist field, and so you need a negotiator to work with you and the client to arrive at something that makes sense.

I know there will many people out there who have successfully found a new job without the help of a recruiter, and if a process is managed well and keeps moving with the right momentum, everything can fall into place nicely. But by engaging with a specialist and trusted recruiter, you will get all of the above benefits, and all for FREE.

Other viewpoints on this very welcome.

KPMG increases its Indirect Tax Services offering in the US

2012-02-09T15:25:00.004Z

Source: Inaudit.com

Just seen this news flow on KPMG taking over part of the Onesource Indirect Tax business in the US. I think this seems to be the tax services side of the US Onesource Indirect Tax business, and largely a US-centric transaction:

Propelling itself into position as a global market leader in indirect tax compliance services, KPMG LLP has acquired the US assets of Thomson Reuters Corporation’s (TRI) widely respected ONESOURCE® Indirect Tax Managed Services business.
The service will become part of KPMG’s Indirect Tax Compliance Services, which is part of the US firm’s existing State and Local Tax (SALT) practice and KPMG’s Global Indirect Tax Service offering provided by KPMG member firms throughout the world. KPMG will maintain an ongoing relationship with Thomson Reuters through the continued use of Thomson Reuters’ underlying technology to power these US-based services.

“This acquisition brings the market-leading technology, content and skilled professionals of the ONESOURCE Indirect Tax Managed Services business of Thomson Reuters together with KPMG’s demonstrated ability to manage the complex, evolving landscape for indirect tax in the US and globally,” said John B. Veihmeyer, Chairman and CEO of KPMG LLP, the US audit, tax and advisory firm.

“We’re giving our clients a ‘one-stop shop’ with superior expertise, scale and a comprehensive approach to indirect tax management and service,” Veihmeyer added.
“The acquisition underscores the benefits of KPMG’s growth strategy, in which the US firm and other member firms focus on organic and inorganic opportunities to enhance their ability to serve clients with market-leading resources,” Veihmeyer said. “This strategy reflects our decision to invest in the future for our own long term success – and to better serve the emerging and future needs of our audit, tax and advisory clients.”

Service Addresses a Clear Business Need
The global expansion of business, and the concurrent global shift to indirect taxation, has moved indirect taxes beyond the traditional US realm of the state sales and use tax model to include value added taxes (VAT), goods and services taxes (GST), excise taxes, transfer taxes, and more.
Companies of every size from the Fortune 100 to the Mid-Market must now comply with increasingly complex regulations and correctly report their tax positions to a range of authorities globally – or face financial, reputational and trading consequences if they come up short.

“Our team of KPMG professionals, augmented by the newly acquired and highly skilled ONESOURCE Indirect Tax Managed Services team, will bring a new dimension to how companies can effectively manage their increasingly complex indirect tax processes, risks and controls,” said P. Scott Ozanus, vice chair and head of Tax Services for KPMG in the US.

“The acquisition also enables us to provide our clients with the enhanced outsourcing and indirect tax managed services and support that can help them effectively manage their indirect tax obligations,” Ozanus said.

Niall Campbell, KPMG Global Head of Indirect Tax Services, said,
“The shift to indirect taxation continues to change the global tax landscape, making it critical that businesses operating internationally have greater confidence in how they comply. This important acquisition by KPMG in the US, together with the continued strong growth of the network’s indirect tax capability globally, provides KPMG member firm clients with a global network of professionals who can deliver the full range of indirect tax compliance, advisory and related services the current environment demands.”
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Thomson Reuters said it had announced to customers in December 2011 that it intended to divest this unit to KPMG.

Tax Professionals......and the Social Media world

2012-02-06T17:12:00.003Z

By Simon Godley

I think we all have to accept that web based social media (the main players being LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and latecomer Google+) is now highly established as a communication platform, and is without doubt here to stay. Facebook seems to be the industry Goliath, with 500m users worldwide and approximately 23m active users in the UK. That’s one third of the UK population actively using Facebook. Research shows that there are approx 6m active users of Twitter in the UK, and a similar number using LinkedIn. These are stats from mid-2011, and so these user numbers will have grown quite a lot by now. From 2011 user statistics, there are approx 2.6m worldwide users of LinkedIn who work in finance. From doing a couple of basic searches on the LinkedIn site, it shows that of these there are approx 350,000 finance users in the UK and just over 60,000 users in the UK connected to the word Tax, most of which have the word tax in their job title. That’s a lot of tax professionals already on LinkedIn.

Also, I think there is still a perception social media (particularly Facebook) is mostly used by teenagers and students who are connecting and mailing friends etc. That’s no longer the case. Of the 23m Facebook users in the UK, a significant proportion are in the 18-34 age bracket (12m), however there are approximately 2m users in the 45-54 age bracket, so I don’t see this as being a youngster fad anymore. Some of these sites now have a strong business network element to them, and that’s attracting people across all demographics.

So, how relevant is social media communication for the tax professional? Given the user stats on tax people appearing on LinkedIn above, we can safely say that LinkedIn is now a highly popular medium used by the tax profession in the UK. It is used as a highly effective networking and marketing platform, both for people marketing themselves, their tax services or their firms’ tax services and products.

However can tax experts benefit from using media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and how or why would they? For tax practice firms, who are client-facing and providing a service, then platforms such as Twitter are now being used to get their message out, whether it be on sound bites referring to specialist tax services they offer, or to start a debate or discussion around tax issues or new tax rules affecting their clients. If they can get a large number of relevant and loyal ‘followers’ then this could be a useful medium to potential clients, effectively augmenting or replacing e-mail marketing. I’ve recently seen a number of accounting firms and sole tax practitioners adopting this, although I sense it’s a bit too early for firms to adopt a full-on and cohesive social media strategy. In terms of business networking, Facebook is not at all realising its potential. There seems to be much less appetite from Facebook users to mix business with pleasure, with most users preferring to keep it as a non-work social and/or family contact zone. Most organisations, including all the major accounting firms, now have an active Facebook page, trying to get customers to ‘Like’ their page and in turn have an audience to engage with, but this really hasn’t yet taken off as a successful route to market.

How could social media be of professional use to the in-house tax adviser or Head of Tax? LinkedIn is now a well established tool amongst Heads of Tax – a quick review shows that there are between 350 and 400 UK based Heads of Tax using LinkedIn. LinkedIn would therefore seem a well accepted tool for commercial tax professionals to make and track connections to other tax people, and to read / take part in tax sector discussions. But I think it is much less obvious of any benefits to a Head of Tax, except for pure social use, from actively using Twitter or Facebook. In-house tax professionals are far less pre-occupied with selling/marketing their companies’ businesses, as they will have other departments and marketing agencies that take care of that, and it is those that will be engaging on Facebook/Twitter. However Twitter can be used to receive tax updates from the Big Four firms, through ‘following’ Deloitte UK budget or E&Y International Tax, for example. The downside of Twitter is that you are constantly flooded with information on Tweets, and it takes some time to decipher what’s useful amongst a lot that is not.

As mentioned before, social media sites are commonly used as effective tools to market yourself, and this can be just as powerful for a tax professional as for any other professional, particularly as either a job seeker or hiring manager. I would suggest it to be prudent for any commercial tax professional, irrespective of level, to have some form of social media presence. LinkedIn is currently the accepted channel. In terms of how the internet search engines (e.g. Google) and social media sites operate and interact, the reality is that you have to be ‘in it to win it’. In other words, by accepting and using social media effectively, a tax job seeker will be found more easily, and therefore logically a hiring manager can use it to seek out candidates.

In summary, social media use is increasing amongst tax professionals, with LinkedIn remaining the platform of choice and with many useful applications. For any tax professional or tax practice trying to get a message out and market themselves through social media, Facebook and Twitter should be explored, although I sense these mediums have got someway to go before they are a more tried and tested marketing route.

Transfer Pricing Manager - London opportunity

2012-02-01T17:56:00.003Z

Demand for transfer pricing specialists in UK and Europe remains very strong, both from the advisory firms and for in-house roles with large-end corporate groups.

Here is an example of a hands-on transfer pricing manager opportunity with a high calibre and progressive Top 20 firm for their London office.

Transfer Pricing Manager
London | £55,000 - £70,000 + Bens

Ambitious and forward thinking professional services firm has created a requirement for a proactive and hands-on transfer pricing specialist, operating at the Assistant Manager or Manager level. Based in London, and reporting to a senior partner, this role will have excellent exposure with clients and have a high visibility within the firm's tax division. With a focus on the compliance / documentation process of transfer pricing, key aspects of the role will involve preparing TP reports, analysis and advice on the workings of clients' TP policies, database reviews, economics analyses, and thin cap considerations. In due course this role will progress into more business development around TP and become more of a leadership role in the tax practice. To match with this opportunity, you will have well established transfer pricing experience, having worked on a variety of client scenarios in practice. Ideally with a training in a Big 4 / Top 20 practice, you will be well skilled at running a number of transfer pricing reports and with a hands-on analytical approach to the studies. You will interact well with clients, and be able to convey and present complex scenarios in an understandable format. This is an excellent opportunity for a TP specialist to progress their career quickly and to have high visibility within a smaller growing team.

For more information or for a confidential discussion on this role, please call Simon Godley on 0870 46 056 46 or email: sg@talentpoolselection.com
Alternatively please Contact Us through our website.

Tax network page for tax professionals on Facebook

2012-01-27T14:23:00.003Z

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

2012-01-25T18:06:00.004Z

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

2012-01-20T19:25:00.004Z

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.

In-House Tax systems - new opportunity

2012-01-16T13:50:00.003Z

Currently working on a somewhat rare opportunity - this role is to join a very large, high profile international corporate to focus on tax system and tax software changes and improvements from a group tax perspective. Looking for someone at newly / recently qualified level with an equally hard-to-find mix of tax & IT skills. However great role for someone looking to progress and build a career in this sub-sector of the tax market.

Tax Technology Adviser - Large Corporate
London | £40,000 - £50,000 + excellent benefits and bonus

New high calibre opportunity has arisen for an IT-tax systems / software adviser to operate within the group tax function of this FTSE 100 group, based in London. Reporting to a Director, this is a rare opportunity to focus on the tax systems and processes within a very international business, and to have exposure to a diverse range of tax system enhancements and implementations. Projects may include workflow and document management systems, devising processes to reduce tax risk, tax provisions & forecasting tools, and other ad-hoc system improvements. In terms of your background, ideally you will be tax trained (corporate tax or other tax area with a large firm), preferably having completed a tax or accounting qualification. You will be at the newly / recently qualified level, now looking for a change of direction or looking to sub-specialise. You may have worked with a variety of tax software products, however experience around corporate tax software will be beneficial. In addition, candidates with a wider appreciation of business / finance systems (e.g. Hyperion, SAP/Oracle Financials, Excel VBA, Access) will have a strong advantage in this systems-centric role. This will be a very visible role in the company, and will involve regular liaison with senior management in the business, tax, legal and IT teams. You will therefore need to demonstrate strong team work skills and confident communication skills with senior colleagues or client contacts. This is a very attractive opportunity in the commercial market, and one which would strongly propel a career in tax systems and software.

For a confidential discussion on this role, please contact Simon Godley on 0870 46 056 46 or email at: sg@talentpoolselection.com

Alternatively please see our general contact details

Predictions for 2012 in-house tax market

2012-01-10T20:06:00.003Z

By Simon Godley

So here we are in the 2nd week back after the New Year, and Talentpool is trying to settle in to what will hopefully be a busy year in the tax search and recruiting market, following on from a productive 2011.

Clearly very difficult to predict how the year will roll out, but here are 5 expectations of what we may see or experience from the in-house tax market in the UK.

1. It will remain notoriously difficult to recruit good quality Tax Advisers / Accountants at the newly & recently qualified (ACA / CTA) level. This will be partly due to low volumes of newly qualifieds coming through to qualification due to lower graduate recruiting in the Big 4 / top tier accounting firms during 2009. Also it is at this point when quite a lot of tax qualifieds decide to leave the tax sector and go on to do something else with their ACA qualification.

2. A continued trend to recruit tax accountants that can display good skills and experience on tax accounting / reporting (this may sound obvious but it can still remain a challenge to find tax qualifieds from the practice firms that have a good grasp of tax reporting (under US Gaap or IFRS) in addition to the more mainstream tax computations experience).

3. Quite strong demand for interim tax managers and tax accountants, particularly during busy compliance and/or tax reporting periods due to group tax functions feeling generally under-resourced and finding it difficult to get the approval to hire into a perm role.

4. In the case of the large-end / top tier multinationals, there may be an increasing trend to bring in-house expertise on tax systems and for ERP-Tax projects. As this area becomes a key feature of the workings of a tax function (i.e. more mainstream), and not wishing to always outsource this work to the large consultancies, Heads of Tax may more frequently look to hire a 'tax technology' expert.

5. Depending on the events and repercussions in the Eurozone, which could be harmful to the UK recovery within business, there may remain a rather weak M&A tax arena due to lack of high value corporate transactions. Demand for M&A tax experts may therefore be lower, however we would still expect to see moderate demand for in-house Tax Managers with good international tax experience due to large number of FTSEs and UK based groups being less reliant on UK business.

Will look forward to reporting on prediction vs reality observed towards the end of the year.

Merry Christmas from Talentpool Selection

2011-12-20T14:41:00.005Z

Season's Greetings to all our Clients and Candidates within the tax market and tax software / systems sector.

During 2011, Talentpool has embraced more technology within our recruiting activity and marketing, and we've now gone fully Social.

So in order to Link, Follow or Like us in the social media world, please click through to one or a combination of the following media. You won't get your inbox relentlessly filled up with trivial messages as we aim to provide quality information on a less frequent basis.

Link to Simon Godley on LinkedIn to keep track of news updates from the tax & tax systems market and see what type of opportunities we are taking on.

Visit our Facebook company page, Like it to see job alerts for new opportunities.

Follow Simon Godley / Talentpool on Twitter to get job alerts and retweets of other tax industry gossip. Also get to see who's following us.

And by the way, it's also our view that social media contact does not replace personal relationships, and we also look forward to speaking or meeting with you in 2012 if you need input from a specialist tax recruiter.

We look forward to providing you with more information from the tax and tax systems market as we go into 2012, and Best Wishes for the New Year.

VAT Consultant - Systems opportunity

2011-12-16T14:42:00.004Z

Just started searching for an ambitious and forward thinking VAT Consultant or Manager with a Big 4 background, and with good knowledge around accounting / finance systems to step into a progressive consulting role within a top tier multinational business.

VAT Consultant / Manager
London | £60,000 - £80,000

Our client is a highly successful tax software and ERP-Tax solutions business, operating in the UK and globally. An excellent opportunity has arisen to be a lead VAT consultant within an Indirect Tax systems business, and to manage client relationships and projects. You will have a direct / top level interface with clients from the start, assessing their own indirect tax processes within a global structure and advising them on alternative ERP-Indirect Tax solutions. You will take a lead role on client implementations projects, working closely with senior tax & finance professionals and with implementations partners to deliver an end-to-end indirect tax solution. You will also be involved with the sales / proposal process to new prospects, acting as a lead VAT content product specialist. To match up to this challenging opportunity, you will have a background in VAT practice (preferably in a Big 4 firm, possibly with in-house VAT experience) and more recently will have forged into a VAT systems / SAP/ Oracle-VAT capacity. You will have a very good appreciation and awareness of how VAT / indirect tax fits within the broader ERP systems framework. In addition, you will have worked with large-end multinationals in a consulting capacity, and preferably with experience of project managing VAT systems changes or SAP-VAT projects. Knowledge of indirect tax engines (e.g. Sabrix / Vertex) will be a strong advantage in the role. This is a growing team in a growth area of the tax systems market, and therefore quick progression opportunities exist for high achievers.

For more information or for a confidential discussion about this opportunity, please call Simon Godley on 0870 46 056 46 or contact us through our website.

Demand for tax technology professionals remains high

2011-12-14T20:51:00.004Z

As we move to the close of the year, the demand for tax technology / tax systems & software professionals in the UK (and in parts of Europe) remains strong.

Here is a snapshot of opportunities we are currently handling:

Director - Tax Accounting Systems | London (with travel) £Highly competitive
In-house Tax Systems Manager | London £60,000 - £80,000 + 20-40% bonus
In-house Tax Technology Adviser | London £45,000 - £50,000 + Bens
VAT Systems Consultant | London (with travel) £65,000 - £75,000 + Bonus + Bens
SAP-Indirect Tax implementations Consultant | South East / Europe £40,000 - £60,000
Tax Software Developer | London £35,000 - £45,000 + Bens
Tax Transformations Manager | London / Europe £46,000 - £65,000 + Bens

If you would like to have a confidential conversation regarding any of these opportunities, or for more information, please contact Simon Godley on 0870 46 056 46 or contact us / e-mail via our website.

Tax transformation / systems expert - Move In-House

2011-12-09T17:01:00.004Z

Starting to work on a search for a new role - rare opportunity for an experienced tax / finance transformations adviser to move in-house with large corporate:

Tax Transformations Manager
London | £80-120k package

New opportunity has arisen for a tax systems / transformations manager to operate within the group tax function of this FTSE 100 group, based in London. Reporting to a Tax Director, this is a rare opportunity to focus on the tax systems and processes within a very international business, and to project manage a diverse range of tax system enhancements and implementations. Projects may include workflow and document management systems, devising processes to reduce tax risk, tax provisions & forecasting tools, and other ad-hoc system improvements. To match the challenges of this role, you will have established experience in the tax software / systems / tax process sector, either gained in a Big 4 firm (consulting or in-house tax technology team) as a client service / implementations adviser with a software house. You may have worked with a variety of tax software products, however experience around corporate tax software will be desirable. In addition, candidates with a wider appreciation of business / finance systems (e.g. Hyperion, SAP/Oracle Financials, Excel VBA) will have a strong advantage in this systems-centric role. This will be a very visible role in the company, and will involve regular liaison with senior management in the business, tax, legal and IT teams. You will therefore need to demonstrate strong team work skills, a sound project management approach and very confident communication skills with senior colleagues.

For more information or for a confidential discussion on this, please either call Simon Godley on 0870 46 056 46 or contact us through our company website.

Top 40 tax professionals (under 40 years old)

2011-12-07T17:54:00.004Z

Tax Journal has recently put together an interesting and innovative review of the 'Top 40 under 40' tax professionals in the UK.

The breakdown by organisation type is:
Big 4 tax practice - 7
Law Firm tax practice - 13
Tax barristers - 5
Other practice (Top 20 / independent firms) - 12
HMRC - 2
Tax Training - 1
In-House - 0 (rather disappointing!)

To review this feature on their website, click to Tax Journal

If you just want to see who made it onto the List, listed alphabetically by surname, here are the 40 under 40:

Marie Barber, Member, Kinetic Partners

Claire Blackburn, Partner, PwC

Lynnette Bober, Private Client Tax Director, Rawlinson & Hunter

Pippa Booth, Partner, Deloitte

Helen Buchanan, Tax Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Alexander Cox, Tax Partner, Ashurst

Caroline Dhir, Tax Partner, Ernst & Young

Richard Harbot, Corporate Tax Partner, Berwin Leighton Paisner

Daniel Hartland, Tax Partner, Grant Thornton

James Henderson, Barrister, Pump Court Tax Chambers

Matthew Hodkin, Partner, Norton Rose

Sue Holmes, Parter, Deloitte

Anna Jarrold, Tax Partner, BDO

Fabrizio Lolliri, Director, Alvarez & Marsal Taxand

Nick Mace, Partner, Clifford Chance

Hui Ling McCarthy, Barrister, Gray's Inn Tax Chambers

Catherine McManus, Tax Director, PKF

Giles Mooney, Managing Director, PTP

Nicole Newbury, Head of Tax Academy, HMRC

Jern-Fei Ng, Barrister, Essex Court Chambers

Leo Palazzuoli, Partner, PwC

Carl Powell, Tax Partner, Houghton Stone

David Quentin, Barrister, Farrer & Co

Rebecca Rice, Qualified Manager, Griffith, Willams & Co

Michael Ridsdale, Partner, Head of Corporate Tax, Wedlake Bell

Dominic Robertson, Associate, Slaughter & May

Abigail Rowsell, Client Manager, Creaseys

Stuart Secker, Head of Financial Services Tax, KPMG

Dipan Shah, Director, PwC

Rupert Shiers, Partner, Tax Disputes, Herbert Smith

Simon Skinner, Tax Partner, Travers Smith

Valentina Sloane, Barrister, Monckton Chambers

James Smith, Partner, Baker & McKenzie

Paula Tallon, Managing Director, Gabelle

Christopher Walker, Policy Adviser, HMRC

Eloise Walker, London Head of Tax, Pinsent Masons

Stuart Walsh, Partner, McGrigors

Jordan Watson, Senior Associate, Corporate Tax, DLA Piper

Mark Webb, Director, Corporate Tax, Smith & Williamson

Richard Wild, Director of VAT, PKF

Tax Jobs - our placements

2011-12-01T18:10:00.003Z

Over the last quarter, we have worked on some in-house part time Tax Manager assignments with new clients, as follows:

Large US multinational : VAT Manager

We were recommended to the European Tax Director of a large consumer product group, based north of London. Their VAT Manager had decided to move on from the company, and we had been brought in to work on the process for the replacement. The Tax Director had made some changes to the previous role, revising it to being a part-time / flexible working role, and seeking out someone who wished to work on an approx. 3 days per week basis. As it was requiring someone at a fairly experienced level (Senior Manager calibre) who could work on a part-time basis, and with the location, this immediately became a very narrow search with very few visible candidates. Through a combination of speaking to our own network in the VAT market and using our social media channels, we were quickly led to a potential candidate. This candidate had a very close match to the VAT skills required for the role, and was successfully appointed.

UK Property Group : Tax Compliance Manager

One of our long term Big Four contacts referred us across to their client, a sizeable UK property group that had made the decision to bring in a Tax Manager for the first time so as to have better control and resource around the increasing tax compliance issues facing the group. This was not going to be a full time role, and so the client was looking for someone that could fit with a very flexible work-life arrangement. We conducted a thorough search of the market, and were able to find and attract a good selection of candidates for the shortlist, combination of those based in practice / Big Four and those with longer term industry tax backgrounds. There were very open lines of communication between Talentpool and the hiring Managers, and the process was drawn swiftly to a conclusion with a 5 week process.

Over the last quarter, we have also had success with a range of placements within the tax software / technology market, which one of our strong focus areas.

If you are currently trying to source a tax professional for your team, and in need of external help and advice, please contact Simon Godley at sg@talentpoolselection.com

Demand for ERP/SAP-VAT systems specialists

2011-11-25T12:46:00.002Z

The area of implementing high spec VAT & Indirect Tax systems into large multinationals is still buoyant, and has been strong throughout 2011. These projects are long term, and so would expect there to be continued demand for specialists in this area into 2012. We are currently speaking to a couple of well placed consultancies in this niche market sector that are looking to hire.

ERP/SAP-VAT Advisers - London / South East (with travel)
Salary range £50,000 - £80,000 (interim and permanent options)

Our client is a well established, specialist tax consultancy with a successful and profitable long term history. They already have an enviable client base, typically FTSE 100 groups, Europe-wide listed and large private organisations. They are now looking to build up further their VAT systems & technology service offering with the addition of a VAT Accountant or Manager level consultant within this evolving sector in the market. This new role, based in London, will work within a tax-IT project team assessing clients' VAT systems and processes and then proposing on a variety of system enhancements and improvements, sometimes involving implementations of tax engine bolt-ons e.g. Sabrix or Vertex. To meet the challenges of this specialist role, you will have a strong 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 a more focused tax / VAT technology background, having project managed IT system enhancement or in-house implementations of tax engines within SAP / Oracle. 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. Strong future promotion prospects exist for high calibre performers.

For more information on this, please contact Simon Godley on 0870 46 056 46

Recent appointments within In-House Tax Market

2011-11-22T18:23:00.002Z

Here are some appointments that have taken place over the last 3-4 months within the in-house tax world:

Samantha Matute has recently been appointed Global Head of Indirect Tax Operations at Glaxo Smith Kline, based in their West London HQ. Samantha is a senior level figure in the commercial tax market, joining GSK from Thomson Reuters where she was Global Head of Indirect Tax.

Adrian Tucker has recently been appointed as European Tax Manager at Astellas Pharma, based in their European HQ in Staines. Adrian is a senior level commercial tax adviser, joining from Orange Business Services where he was an International Tax Manager.

Oil & Gas engineering group Subsea 7 has recently recruited Andreas Guenster as their Manager – Global Tax Reporting, based in London. Andreas is a very experienced in-house Tax Manager, and joins from biotech company Illumina where he was stand-alone European Tax Manager.

Insurance group Canada Life has just recruited Krupesh Pabari as Corporate Tax Manager in the UK. Krupesh joins the company from Ricoh Europe Plc, where he was Tax Accountant.

Senior Tax Systems Opportunity - UK

2011-11-14T13:18:00.003Z

Currently working on a senior level tax technology assignment, based in the UK:

Director - Tax Accounting Systems
London | £Excellent senior-end package

Our client is a top ranked software solutions provider in the finance sector, operating in North America and across the EMEA region. Based in the UK, the EMEA operation is now looking to make a Director level hire.

Based in the London region, and with close liaison with senior US and UK management, this role is responsible for the successful delivery of tax reporting solutions to multinational clients.

Key accountabilities:
• To be a senior level consultant to new and existing clients within the EMEA region looking to acquire bespoke tax accounting solutions; working closely with sales and pre-sales colleagues
• Lead role on client proposals, including discussions and negotiations on pricing structures
• Translate customer’s strategic goals and business needs into a solution proposal
• Provide general management and leadership to implementations specialist, directing the team on key client implementations projects
• Understand project status and facilitate achievement of project objectives and priorities
• Closely manage project budget and customer invoicing to insure alignment, and manage the project change control process as appropriate.
• To act as a senior level account manager on active client engagements
• Close liaison with partners and alliances within the tax technology market, and further development of these partnerships
• Lead role on the market positioning of the product
• To conduct customer satisfaction reviews and liaison to product development
• Attending key conferences (internal and external) throughout the year.

It is envisaged that suitable candidates will already be operating at an experienced level within the tax technology & systems/software market (equivalent to Senior Manager / Director grade of a Big 4 consulting firm), ideally based in the UK. Candidates will be able to demonstrate experience of acting in a lead / project management role on large corporate tax software implementations, and will have integral knowledge of IT platforms and systems used in the sector. In addition, strong business development skills will be required, together with excellent client handling and relationship skills with senior executives (finance, IT, tax, procurement) within large corporate groups.

If this sounds like a role that might enhance your career, or for a confidential discussion, please contact Simon Godley on 0870 46 056 46 or email: sg@talentpoolselection.com

Tax Regime not suppporting business - review by PwC

2011-11-08T16:20:00.003Z

Source: FinancialDirector.co.uk

ALMOST THREE-QUARTERS of UK private businesses say the tax regime does not support enterprise, according to a new survey by PwC. In 2007, just 59% said the same thing and respondents also warned SME-targeted measures are failing to deliver.

Higher tax relief for research and development will have no impact, according to 60% of respondents, while the extension of the small business rate relief holiday and reforms to Venture Capital Trusts received similarly lacklustre reviews.

Head of private business Ruby Parmar, said: "Private businesses hold the key to future economic growth, many having weathered the recession better than their listed counterparts.
"The Government says it recognises this, but certain measures designed to support business endeavour are not having their intended effect, or at least not being appreciated across the private business sector."

Broader tax changes were also unpopular, with 91% saying higher national insurance contributions negatively impacted their business, while three-quarters are unhappy with the VAT hike to 20%.
Despite the grumbles, optimism is on the rise, with 82% expecting the business environment to brighten in the next five years and around 70% confident their revenues and pre-tax profits will climb within 12 months. Many are looking to Brazil, Russia, India and China to grow, as well as developing new products and increasing market share.
Parmar highlighted access to finance as crucial to success, warning banks' reluctance to lend remains a major threat to private businesses.

"The chancellor's plans for a credit-easing scheme could be a big help, but much will depend on the level of finance available, whether it will be easy to access and the cost to the borrower," she concluded.

Tax Compliance Manager (with IT interest) - reposition your career!

2011-10-31T20:24:00.003Z

Tax Compliance Manager - reposition your tax career in 2012!

London | £50,000 - £60,000 + Bens Package
Are you an experienced corporate tax compliance specialist, now looking for new career options? This is a highly innovative tax technology business with continued growth plans now seeking to recruit an IT-savvy corporate tax assistant manager or tax manager to join their software development team. You do not need to be an IT or software specialist to succeed in this role, although you will require strong analytical / logical thinking and enjoy working on IT applications, such as Excel or Access. Once transitioned into the team, key responsibilities will be modelling and encoding tax rules and legislation into new and existing software, working closely with pure IT programmers, and ensuring that the software has sufficient and up-to-date content for it to remain as a leading tax software tool. There will also be scope in the future to design and develop new tax software applications. Opportunities also exist to develop the software for both UK and other international jurisdictions. To match up to this role, you will have a solid grounding in corporate tax compliance gained with a large accounting firm, or in-house, now wishing to consider an IT-based tax career. You will have a strong academic background, with high grades in subjects such as Maths / Physics. Ideally you will have a professional qualification, with the ACA / ACCA accounting route being an advantage. You will be good at and enjoy improving the quality and accuracy of tax computations through use of Excel or tax software applications (e.g. Abacus or Alphatax). You will have a good appreciation of tax software as a user, now wishing to be instrumental at improving its capabilities. This will be a progressive role, with opportunities to move your career up within the field of tax technology. Some occasional international travel with be required.

To discuss this opportunity in confidence, please contact Simon Godley on 0870 46 056 46.

Seeking Tax Compliance & Reporting Accountants - Europe wide

2011-10-14T11:50:00.002+01:00

I'm actively searching for tax professionals across Europe (not just UK) that have very solid tax accounting / reporting skills. Likely to be currently working in-house with a large corporate organisation or within banking/financial services, and within hands-on experience of tax reporting process and systems:

Tax Consultant / Manager - Tax Compliance Systems
London - with European travel | £45,000 - £65,000, depending on level of experience

High profile advisory firm in London with large European coverage is now looking to grow further their successful tax technology consulting practice, and now seeks to recruit at Tax Adviser / Accountant and/or Tax Manager level into this UK / European tax technology consulting practice. Based in London, with frequent travel around Europe, this client facing project based role will mostly work with large FTSE / European HQ / Global 500 and financial services clients, and will work on projects to analyse tax risk and tax reporting process, and to subsequently implement and roll-out bespoke tax systems and technology solutions for the client. Projects will cover a range of client issues, focusing on corporate tax process and compliance, iXBRL systems, analysis and selection of tax accounting and compliance solutions. Potential candidates will have a strong grounding in corporate & international tax compliance / tax accounting, preferably qualified ACA / ACCA / CTA, and will currently be working with an in-house tax team in industry or banking (currently based anywhere in UK or Europe) or in a Big 4 corporate tax division, now looking for a new career direction. Knowledge and experience of using or implementing / improving tax software systems will be a major advantage, and in particular experience on Excel / VBA and CT compliance software will be added advantage. An awareness of tax accounting principles under UK / US GAAP / local GAAP / IFRS will be highly valuable to success in this opportunity, as well as strong client interaction skills and the ability and confidence to develop more business when appropriate. This is a growing team, and fast track promotion prospects are available for high achievers. Other European language skills would be useful.

For more information, or for a confidential discussion, please call Simon Godley on 0870 4605646 or email: sg@talentpoolselection.com

Tax (Accounting) Manager - switch career into tax systems

2011-10-10T16:30:00.001+01:00

Recruiting for a very good growth business in the tax data systems / tax process market. Opportunity for a Corporate Tax Accountant or Manager with very strong tax accounting / IFRS / UK Gaap tax reporting experience to move away from doing the accounting to working with IT systems that automate the process.

Tax-IT Implementations Manager
London / South East | £50,000 - £70,000 + Bens

Highly innovative tax software business with continued growth plans now seeks to recruit an IT-savvy corporate tax assistant manager or manager to join their software development team. You do not need to be an IT or software specialist to succeed in this role, although you will require strong analytical / logical thinking and be very adept on Excel to work well in the role. Key remit of the position is modelling and encoding tax rules and legislation into the software, working closely with programmers, and ensuring that the software has sufficient and up-to-date content for it to remain as a leading tax software tool used by wide range of practice firms and industry. Opportunities exist to work on the software for both UK and other international jurisdictions. To match up to this role, you will have a solid grounding in corporate tax compliance gained with a large accounting firm, or in-house, now looking for a new career direction. You will be good at and enjoy improving the quality and accuracy of tax computations through use of software. You will have a good appreciation of tax software as a user, now wishing to be instrumental at improving its capabilities. This will be a progressive role, with opportunities to move your career up within the field of tax technology. Some international travel with be required.

For more information, or for a confidential discussion, please contact Simon Godley on 0870 4605646 or apply via our website.

Recruitment Agents and Estate Agents - roughly the same?

2011-10-06T15:31:00.002+01:00

By Simon Godley

I was at a drinks function recently, and got talking to an in-house Tax Manager. I was describing a recent placement I had made, someone from company A into company B. In this scenario, company A had also appointed me to conduct a search to recruit a replacement when my candidate from company A announced that he was leaving to join company B. The chap I was talking to said “OK, bit like an estate agent.” He was a very nice guy, and I was enjoying talking to him, so I didn’t react adversely to his comment.

However this was a reminder that some people have a perception that recruiters or recruitment consultants operate like estate agents, or that in some way it’s the same discipline. I think the origins of this somewhat incorrect comparison are that the vast majority of people understand how an estate agent earns a fee, but don’t have a good understanding of what’s involved for a recruiter to make a fee. Yes, recruiters and estate agents both earn a fee for their successful deals, but that is probably where the comparison ends. What about investment bankers? They also earn a fee for transactions, but they are never likened to recruiters.

The other possible rationale is that both recruitment and estate agents fall under the same discipline category i.e. Sales. Again, this is a huge generalisation, and I think confusing.

I think a recruiter’s job is NOT like an estate agents for the following reasons:

• An estate agent’s product is a property i.e. a non-human inanimate asset. A recruiter’s ‘product’ is a person – a human that has emotions, views, opinions, personality, and most importantly the right to say “No”. That’s a big difference, and I think provides an additional layer of complexity for a recruiter when handling a candidate-client placement process.

• In the process of selling/buying a house, the house has a vendor i.e. someone wishing to sell the property. In the process of someone wishing to move jobs, their employer is clearly not selling them into the market. You could argue that in a redundancy situation, the employer is releasing them into the market, but that’s one event of many possibilities. In many recruiter scenarios, the candidate who is looking at other options, doesn’t have to move jobs. The emphasis is therefore on the recruiter to assess and make a judgement on how serious a candidate is in their quest to move jobs, again providing uncertainty in the process.

• When someone has bought a house, if the house turns out to be a bit rubbish, or doesn’t live up to expectations, who do they blame? There may be more than one answer to this, but I think the majority of people would either blame themselves for taking the decision to buy the house, or in a lot of cases would blame the previous owners for not looking after it very well. The agent gets a bit forgotten. However, if a company hires someone who turns out to be a bit rubbish, or significantly underperforms, who do they blame? In a lot of cases this turns out to be the recruiter, and the company will penalise the recruiter by not using them again. I’m not saying that this is the wrong reaction – it’s a bit harsh, given that the recruiter has virtually no control over how someone behaves once they have started a job, it’s just a different result.

In writing this article, I am in no way suggesting that an estate agent’s job is easier or less demanding, I would never suggest that. My point is that they are very different, with a very different transaction process, but often seen by the outside world as very similar.

Tax Jobs Market - Update

2011-09-26T10:22:00.002+01:00

By Simon Godley

So far 2011 has been a very positive year for the tax job market. As predicted, the recovery momentum from 2010 has continued throughout this year, and demand for tax professionals has been building. We are now 3 years on from the recession of 2008-2009, and it feels that the employment market has benefited significantly from the corporate market recovering itself from the financial crises in 2008. However with this seemingly healthy job market, there is now a fragile economic backdrop – a heavily indebted Euro zone situation, stock markets slumping, negative news flow on the US economy, and the threat of the UK dropping back into recession. Generally it feels currently that the tax job market and the economy and behaving out of sync, and the danger is that the employment market recovery mentioned above could quickly run out steam. We hope not.

Recruitment across the UK in-house tax market has become progressively more active during 2011. This is a combination of in-house tax functions feeling willing and able to hire into their teams and a good level of movement around the in-house market, leading to a high proportion of outgoing people being replaced. There is now demand for corporate / international tax professionals, and demand for VAT/Indirect Tax specialists remains strong. There has also been a good level of roles for in-house transfer pricing managers within the larger-end multinationals.

Recruitment activity across the practice market has been moderately busy, with the Big Four continuing to build up tax resource to match increasing corporate and M&A activity, and to build up specialist teams for areas such as tax systems / technology consulting and iXBRL. Some of the Top 20 firms have also made a good number hires in tax during this year.

In the field of tax software / technology, there has been good demand for new hires within the tax software companies. The continued growth of tax technology businesses in the UK market has been fuelled by iXBRL, Senior Accounting Officer rules and adoption (mainly by some large-end corporates) of more streamlined ERP-based tax compliance and accounting systems.

So despite the tax job market behaving as one would expect i.e. quite bullish post-recession mode, concerns of more significant set-backs within the UK and broader international economy could knock out a lot of the confidence we have seen during 2011. Hopefully if there are no more major shocks coming out the Euro zone debt crises, we may be able to keep the UK jobs market roughly on track.

In-House Tax opportunities

2011-09-20T13:57:00.002+01:00

We are seeing an upturn in recruiting activity for the in-house tax function across the London / South East region. This is coming through from a (somewhat unpredictable) combination of increased business activity and a desire to have more tax expertise and resource in-house, versus too much dependancy on Big 4 / advisers.

Current active roles include:

International Tax Adviser - Large Corporate
London | £80-100k + very good package

Pure tax planning and structuring role on international transactions / reorgs / M&A.
Seeking Big 4 Senior Tax Manager (large-end corporate), 7-10 years' PQE, possibly with some in-house experience.

VAT / Indirect Tax Adviser - Commodity Trader
London | £55-70k + Bonus

Working as a stand-alone VAT & indirect taxes adviser within this boutique commodity trading business, based in attractive central London location. Seeking experienced VAT specialist, Manager level, with knowledge/experience in the energy trading sector.

Part-Time / Flexible Tax Compliance Manager - Property Developer
London | £60-90k (pro-rata)/ £Daily rate

Experienced Tax Manager / Senior Tax Manager is sought to develop into a new in-house tax compliance role with a well established and high profile property development group. Experience of partnership tax, as well as corporate tax compliance, would be a great advantage.

For more information on any of these role, or for a confidential discussion, please contact me (Simon Godley) on 0870 46 056 46 or email me at sg@talentpoolselection.com

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