
TAX JOBS MARKET
DRIVERS OF A CHANGE
Tax jobs market has been significantly changed over the last few years. We faced a lot of legislation changes and initiatives taken by the governments and international bodies to tighten tax rules and to close the gaps. BEPS, CbCR, FATCA, US Tax Reform, new tax implementations providing VAT changes and „Obesity Taxes”, and finally BREXIT and US election. So, all of this significantly impacted the old tax world we were used to live. On the other hand, fast development of tax technology and automated solutions put us in completely new situation. These changed the role and way how the modern tax department run.
Leading tax function became much more complex than just managing effective tax rate and tax compliance. We have to be project oriented and have experience in managing the projects. At the same time, continuously looking to make the overall process more efficient. Aggressive tax structures have became a taboo and nowadays tax planning has to be more „sophisticated”.
STILL A CANDIDATE DRIVEN MARKET
Lack of manager level candidates across the tax jobs market made most of the clients to look at different options. Either more senior or more often to go for juniors with growth potential. This partially impacted a decrease in salaries at the senior end. Â At the same time, current focus on tax transparency has positive impact for candidates with high exposure to corporate tax compliance and reporting.
HEAD OF TAX
The role of Head of Tax evolved from managing ETR as the primary barometer of success to the overall quality of an In-house Tax department contribution. Â Tax function must now interact with the business at the highest level. Acting commercially and thinking proactively at all stages. Â Head of Tax must develop not only technical proficiency but also commercial, communication skills and the understanding of wider business initiatives. Â All above had a positive impact on Head of Tax compensation, with increases in base salary across all sectors.
UK: up to GBP 340k + up to 50% bonus
EMEA: up to EUR 380k + up to 50% bonus
US: up to USD 550k + up to 50% bonus
TAX PARTNER
Demand for commercial and reputation risk management around Tax makes firms and their Partners to evolve in the same way as the Heads of Tax.  Demand for „aggressive” tax planning solutions has diminished. So, the focus for advisers is increasing on advisory and compliance work linked to tax transformation projects and commercial activity. Corporate and International Tax Partners engaged to deliver broad range of services. More closely integrated with related Consulting and Assurance Service Lines. Major growth area are Tax Reporting and Strategy. Technology increasingly offers opportunities to introduce efficiencies with respect to global Tax management.
UK: up to GBP 450k
EMEA: up to EUR 350k
US: up to USD 500k
CORPORATE TAX ROLES
Centers of Excellence are increasingly being used across the UK and EMEA giving a greater focus on controllership and oversight within group. Â Tax departments are effectively partnering with business, thus demand for Corporate Tax in the EMEA region and in the US remains high. Â Domestic and international businesses enhance their capability to satisfy the complex Compliance and Reporting requirements of the US Tax law. Â Talking about the salaries, those have remained relatively stable. On the other hand, Â rapid growth in Tax Operations and Technology drove professionals in these areas have enjoyed comparably larger increases in compensation.
Director: UK – up to GBP 140k
EMEA – up to EUR 150k
US up to USD 350k
Manager: UK – up to GBP 75k
EMEA – up to EUR 80k
US – up to USD 180k
TRANSFER PRICING ROLESÂ
BEPS and CbCR fundamentally increased the value of Transfer Pricing expertise. TP professionals enjoyed recently uplifts of 10-20% by moving/re-positioned internally, which increased importance and visibility of their skills. US and European TP professionals enjoyed strong demand for their skills throughout. Professional Services firms maintained large teams due to increased need for local advisers in order to support client projects globally. All that caused considerable investment in additional TP headcount In-house and increased compensation through market demand / internal adjustments to current market rates.
Director: UK – up to GBP 140k
EMEA – up to EUR 150k
US up to USD 300k
Manager: UK – up to GBP 75k
EMEA – up to EUR 80k
US – up to USD 160k
INDIRECT TAX ROLES
Indirect Tax market is a place of continuous change. The political upheaval of Brexit and the US election, EU laws surrounding BEPS, FATCA and the importance of managing Tax risk are driving significant transformation here. In Europe, companies have already started to model the impact of Brexit, including the future of many multinationals’ European Indirect Tax processing hubs. Economists are confident that the current UK VAT rate of 15% will stay well in to the 2020s.  UK’s trade agreements re-negotiation drove the companies to analyse potential changes to VAT rates and customs duties. At the same time, Tax Technology improves operational efficiencies and automates returns’ processing and filings. We noticed increased demand for top Indirect Tax talent across Europe. Furthermore, we expect Indirect Tax to be one of the main areas for business-critical hires over the next years. The salary for Indirect Tax talent will increase at all levels. In Asia demand for Indirect Tax specialists is increasing in both Professional Services firms and In-house. As part of broader tax reform, it appears likely that the US will introduce a VAT to offset a reduction in personal and corporate income taxes, aimed at stimulating investment led growth.
Director: UK – up to GBP 160k
EMEA – up to EUR 200k
US up to USD 275k
Manager: UK – up to GBP 70k
EMEA – up to EUR 85
US – up to USD 165k
PRIVATE CLIENT TAX ROLES
Private Client Tax expertise is in high demand globally. Â Globally coordinated Tax, Wealth and Estate planning services as well as Family Offices and Wealth Advisory businesses value Tax capability as a component of their operations. Â In the UK we observed a considerable growth for the last years, driven by changes in legislation (non-domicile rules) and Brexit.
Director: UK – up to GBP 140k
EMEA – up to EUR 140k
US up to USD 300k
Manager: UK – up to GBP 65k
EMEA – up to EUR 65k
US – up to USD 175k
UK TAX JOBS MARKET
Still the biggest tax jobs market in Europe. Last years brought steady increase in permanent tax roles, while slow down in temporary roles. The market moved towards more compliance and risk focused tax roles as well as review and compliance project management, rather than the hands-on computation work. Candidates with an interest in tax research and financial services tax operations are still in high demand outside the traditional corporate tax space.Â
Radomir Graj
founder taxjobz.com
Photo by Roberto Júnior on Unsplash