Job Title: Tax Services Manager

THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
Recruitment Role Profile Form

Job Title: Tax Services Manager

School/Department: Financial & Business Services – Financial Operations

Salary: £47,314 - £56,467 per annum (pro rata), depending on skills and experience. Salary progression beyond this scale is subject to performance

Job Family and Level: Administrative, Professional & Managerial Level 6

Contract Status: Permanent

Hours of Work: Hours of work are full-time; however applications are also welcome from candidates wishing to work part-time (minimum 29 hours per week). Please specify in your application if you wish to work part time and the number of preferred hours.

Location: Kings Meadow Campus

Reporting to: Director of Financial Operations

Purpose of the Post

The Tax Services Manager is responsible for the worldwide tax affairs of the University and its subsidiary companies. Duties include strategic development of the service, tax planning, statutory tax compliance, including compilation and submission of returns, and the application of an extensive knowledge of continually changing legislation to provide advice and respond to tax queries from across the University. The post holder will seek external professional advice where appropriate and manage the contribution of those advisers. The post holder is responsible for the management of tax services.

Main Responsibilities / % time per year
1 / To plan, develop and report on the strategic development of the role and structure of the service, ensuring the service is meeting the changing needs of the University.
Contribute at a strategic level to the continuing development of the department as a whole through participation at relevant committees and forums. To inform and influence department policy formulation and service level statements.
Member of the departmental management team which considers, develops and aligns department strategy with the overall strategy of the University. / 10
2 / Responsible for shaping the strategic direction of the service and managing the associated change. This is demonstrated through the following activities:
Development of service level agreements (used to focus staff attention on key areas for service delivery)
Activity/Performance review, management team meetings, and regular line manager meetings (used to monitor performance and progress whilst communicating direction or change)
Staff welfare monitoring (communicating relevant policies and procedures and applying them fairly, taking responsibility for disciplinary matters, considering requests for early retirement, management of sickness absence etc). / 10
3 / To lead, manage and analyse the role and work of the service to ensure provision of high quality customer focused services, to agreed service levels to the University.
To provide direction, leadership, support and guidance to line managers within the service. / 10
4 / Significant and continuous project management responsibilities including formal reviews of services across the campuses and the department, and implementation of all recommendations and strategies.
Providing strategic planning reports and recommendations on the future development of the service with a planning timescale of months and years. / 10
5 / Provision of tax advice and monitoring of tax compliance across the University and its subsidiaries. This advice is based on knowledge of current and potential future legislation and is delivered in a number of formats – responding to individual queries, updating the University’s website, training sessions etc. The post holder is expected to liaise with the University’s external partners, suppliers and customers where necessary. The post holder is responsible for ensuring that all University departments and subsidiaries meet statutory tax requirements. The postholder is expected to interpret complex tax legislation and translate to non-tax experts in the University. / 10
6 / To evaluate lawful opportunities for minimising the tax liabilities of the University, collecting and analysing data on activities in the group and recommending changes to the structure and operations of the group. The post holder is also expected to explore opportunities for improving the cash flow of taxation transactions. The post holder should have an appreciation of the moral complexities involved in this duty and the impact of any proposals and investigations upon the University’s reputation and position at all times. / 10
7 / To ensure that the tax treatment of the capital build programme is managed effectively. This includes responsibility for the tax provision of high value capital projects (upto £20m) ensuring that whilst tax compliant the University maximises tax recovery. VAT exposure on such projects may be in excess of £3m.
The role holder also has a duty to ensure that the service achieves additional income generation by appropriate tax planning.
To assess and report for planning purposes on the future budgetary requirements of the service. / 10
8 / Responsibility for the accurate and timely preparation, sign off and submission of statutory tax and related returns for the group in accordance with legal requirements. These include quarterly VAT returns (including partial exemption calculations, annual adjustments and Capital Goods Scheme calculations), EC Sales Listings and Intrastat Returns, P11ds and PSA. The post holder will be expected to have an involvement in the preparation and submission of direct taxation returns. / 10
9 / The role is the primary point of contact for the University with HMRC, particularly in relation to VAT. This involves maintaining the University’s good relationship with its Customer Relations Manager and Technical Officer, implementing and updating HMRC’s Action Plan for the University, ensuring that the University’s Risk Assessment rating remains as low as possible, managing visits from HMRC officers, responding to HMRC questions, and developing a response to HMRC challenges, preparing, submitting and managing voluntary disclosures of errors, minimising penalties, preparing for and attendance at tax tribunals, etc. / 5
10 / To represent the service at senior levels within the University and the wider community to promote the work activities of the department.
The role is required to provide reports for management as required. The post holder is responsible for maintaining the relationship with the University’s external tax advisers and for working in a co-ordinated manner with other external advisers. The post holder liaises with external auditors and is expected to network with tax professionals in other organisations similar to the University. / 5
11 / To represent and promote the service across the sector including an active role in the BUFDG Tax Groups sharing best practice.
To develop specialist knowledge and expertise in current and emerging developments in both the education sector and in business that may be used to enhance the services. / 5
12 / Maintain and develop financial controls in accordance with statutory and audit requirements, minimising the risk of fraudulent and erroneous payments. Regular departmental audits to review tax transactions for compliance. / 3
13 / Management of critical and urgent issues that may have significant impact on the services. / 2
14 / Any other duties appropriate to the grade and role

Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications & Experience

Essential / Desirable
Qualifications/ Education / ·  Degree or equivalent plus substantial relevant experience or proven track record of relevant extensive work experience.
·  Professional Tax qualification, CTA (Chartered Tax Adviser) or AIIT (Associate of the Institute of Indirect Taxation) or work experience sufficient to demonstrate an equivalent level of VAT knowledge.
·  Evidence of an ongoing commitment to professional development particularly keeping up to date with new case law and annual changes to tax legislation.
Skills/Training / ·  In depth knowledge and significant UK indirect tax experience from working in a similar role in an equivalent organisation or as a consultant VAT advisor.
·  Excellent written and oral communication skills.
·  An ability to assimilate and interpret complex financial reports and legislation essential.
·  Ability to communicate technical matters in a non-technical way both orally and in writing.
·  Ability to plan and reformulate transactions to achieve tax efficiency.
·  Ability to identify the need for amendments to business processes arising from changes in legislation and to specify these.
·  Ability to negotiate and coherently present the University’s case in discussions and correspondence with HMRC.
·  Ability to develop and manage a high performance team.
·  Proven change management skills.
·  Proven advanced analytical and problem solving capability.
·  Operational planning, management and business process skills / ·  Up to date and relevant knowledge of indirect tax issues relating to the Higher Education.
·  Corporation Tax knowledge and/or experience.
Experience / ·  Substantial Indirect Tax experience involving complex organisations.
·  Substantial experience of working with and influencing senior management including Board level
·  Experience of managing staff, formally or informally to achieve specific tasks.
·  Experience of analysing complex information from a variety of sources within very tight deadlines and identifies the key strategic and operational issues.
·  Proven people and/or change management skills.
·  Strong interpersonal skills including motivational negotiating, influencing and relationship building.
·  Experience of managing and controlling budgets/resources/ funding and an understanding of financial management procedures.
·  Experience of developing innovative solutions and contributing to strategic planning.
·  Well developed understanding of regulations and legislation and the implications of non-compliance on other staff.
·  Substantial experience of managing a large complex service.
·  Experience of developing a significant team and project management.
·  Experience of developing solutions and contributing to strategic planning / ·  Recent specialist indirect tax experience in the education or not for profit sector and experience and knowledge of indirect tax partial exemption.
·  Experience of dealing with EU and international indirect and direct tax issues
·  Experience of direct tax issues including P11D and PSA.
·  Experience of tax at overseas educational establishments.

Decision Making

i) taken independently by the role holder

·  Provide expert tax advice and guidance throughout the University and its subsidiary companies.
·  Identifying and managing VAT exemptions efficiently for the University and subsidiaries.
·  Deciding on appropriate VAT liabilities for goods and services provided by the University and subsidiaries.
·  Actively promote best practice with internal/external bodies.
·  Own workload prioritisation and associated delegation of work to staff.
·  Any operational decisions on service provision.
·  Implementation decisions following Senior Management’s approval of change.
·  Responses to complaints and associated negotiations.
·  Proactively write reports and recommendations.
·  Management decisions in critical and urgent situations.
·  Identify and manage the most suitable way to analyse data to achieve clear information for all project work undertaken.
·  Project planning and reporting including identification of resources, timescales, risks and interdependencies.
·  Development of webpages for Tax Services.
·  Maintain and deliver training as appropriate
·  Co-ordination and effective communication of policies and procedures to all relevant stakeholders.
·  Develop, maintain and communicate up to date and appropriate policies and procedures.
·  Short-listing candidates for interview and chairing decisions during interviews.
·  Project management decisions.
·  Activity/Performance review.
·  Disciplinary measures (in accordance with University policy).
·  Project progress reporting.

ii) taken in collaboration with others

·  Development of tax and VAT planning in collaboration with external advisors.
·  Implementation of tax and VAT planning with assistance from other departments.
·  Responses to complaints involving other services or teams.
·  Negotiations for service delivery involving other services or teams.
·  Responses to requests for information (depending on topic).

iii) referred to the appropriate line manager (Lee Towers) by the role holder

·  Assist the Director of Financial Operations as required to formulate strategy.
·  Advise on structures to implement for VAT on major capital projects.
·  Appropriate tax treatment of transactions/projects where there is a high value, an unclear legislative position and consequent risk that the tax authorities will challenge the position taken.
·  Methods of calculating a VAT reclaim where there is to be a new reclaim methodology.
·  Out of policy review and recommendations to the Director of Financial Operations.
·  Approval for recommendations for policy change.
·  Reports requiring senior management approval or which would impact on departmental strategic change.
·  Items with additional budgetary implications.

Informal enquiries should be addressed to the Director of Financial Operations, Lee Towers, email: Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.

Due to the requirements of the UK Border and Immigration Agency, applicants who are not UK or EEA nationals and whose immigration status entitles them to work without restriction in the UK will be considered on an equal basis with UK and EEA nationals. Other non-UK or non-EEA nationals whose employment will require permission to work subject to a resident labour market test may only be considered if there are no suitable UK or EEA national candidates for the post. Please visit http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/ for more information.

Please quote ref: SJ14954B