SAO Regime - Tax Systems opportunities

By Simon Godley

Whilst I sense that the Senior Accounting Officer (SAO) legislation, in which all FDs of companies with UK turnover of over £200m have to annually certify the accuracy of their tax reporting systems or face personal penalties, is moving up the financial agenda and maybe being taken more seriously by FDs/Heads of Tax, this has had so far very little impact on in-house tax teams needing to hire someone to do a review.

In the last 12 months since the note on this appeared in the pre-budget report, I have seen no more than 3-4 situations where a company which is affected by the legislation actually actively seek to recruit a tax auditor / accountant to perform a tax systems review. This is possibly not a major surprise as:

a. we have been in a major recession and companies have severely struggled to increase headcount within an in-house tax function, for both perm and temp roles

b. where a company has a well established in-house tax function, someone within the department has had to take on this review work in addition to their usual duties

c. a number of companies will get their regular accountants / tax advisers to do a review of this, possibly as part of a tax audit

I suspect more contract roles will appear for this type of review work over the next 12 months, as this issue climbs up the financial reporting agenda.

In the meantime, I am working on one specific SAO related Tax Accountant role with a London based financial services group. This is looking for someone to work on an initial 3 months project to assess and make recommendations on accuracy of tax data in the accounting system. The company is happy to pay up to £600 per day, and so any interested parties should contact me on sg@talentpoolselection.com to discuss further.

Talentpool presents at the Tax Director Network

On the evening of Wed 4th November 2009, Simon Godley made a presentation to the Tax Director Network on the subject of 'Attracting and Keeping Your Tax Team'. This was held at Norton Rose's offices, and was attended by a selection of commercial Tax Directors.

The Tax Director Network holds monthly meetings, and it is a very open and friendly forum for in-house Tax Directors to meet and discuss issues relating to the tax function, and for exchange of ideas and information.

I would certainly recommend this forum network to any Head of Tax / Tax Director who wishes to debate issues with like-minded professionals in a very relaxed and informal setting.

For more information, visit www.taxdirectornetwork.com

Jumeirah in Dubai appoints Tax Director

Source: Tax Careers Magazine

Dubai-based luxury hospitality group Jumeirah, which encompasses the 7 star hotel, the Burj Al Arab, has appointed Mariel Yard as Director of Tax.

Previously a Senior Manager - international tax structuring with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dubai, she was previously based in Nicosia, Cyprus, she has also held roles with Eurofreight Logistics and NCR (middle east).

Yard told Tax Careers: 'Being an inhouse tax director in such a growing and dynamic group, I'm often asked to step outside my comfort zone and become more involved in business decision-making. It takes a willingness to work hard, but offers enormous challenges.'

Yard is fluent in Arabic, English and Greek.

Tax Directors - Quotes

Through the process of reviewing material for this blog, I am trying to pick up quotes from Tax Directors of multinational groups.

I like quotes from people, I think they reveal a lot of truth, particularly when the person quoting has first hand experience of the subject they are commenting on.

Here are a couple that I have uncovered recently:

"To be a successful in-house tax director you have to be willing to step out of your comfort zone of just dealing with tax matters and become more involved in business decision making. I work with Treasury on funding issues, HR on expatriate issues such as equity compensation and finance on business model structuring."

Alex Yuen, Director of Corporate Tax at The Walt Disney Company (Asia Pacific)

"The profile of the tax department has increased and it is no longer sufficient [for a tax director] to be knowledgeable about tax. A tax director must be part of the management team and be involved in establishing the direction of a company. It takes a willingness to work hard."

William Ramirez, Senior Tax Counsel, Altria Corporate Services