Senior Specialist

Allan Gray • Other • Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa • $200 - $300 / year • 7h ago

Job Description

We are looking for a proactive and energised individual to assist with managing the tax function for the Group. The individual with be responsible for providing a wide range of tax advisory services to the business as well as ensuring compliance with operational requirements (including reporting) imposed by both local and foreign tax regulators. An important aspect of the role will be the support of independent financial advisers (IFAs) who place business with Allan Gray with a particular focus on cross border tax compliance and planning.

Responsibilities

Keep abreast of relevant tax related regulations and legislative changes or trends within the financial services industry in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Bermuda
Manage the tax advisory relationships with in-country counsel for ex-SA operations
Effectively manage relationships with the relevant local and foreign tax authorities
Answer tax related questions from the business and financial advisors and understand highly complex tax related problems
Prepare clear, sound, accurate reports containing findings, conclusions and recommendations to management, legal/compliance and operational areas regarding new legislative and tax reporting requirements
Tax monitoring/audit of the business-related tax processes:
- by performing a review of the control environment to ensure that sufficient and effective controls are in place to detect discrepancies and deviations from agreed processes and legislative requirements.
- review operational reports to identify potential areas of concern/ gaps/ trends where tax monitoring/ additional controls may be required.
Provide input to the industry on behalf of the company (i.e. regulatory papers / industry bodies)
Continuously advise and provide training to internal stakeholders to ensure optimal awareness and competence with regards to new and existing tax legislation
Liaise with Clients/Financial Advisors and Operations teams regarding queries and topical tax issues
Interacting with internal stakeholders, industry bodies and authorities to ensure that IFAs interests are adequately addressed in engagement processes.
Supporting IFAs to understand and navigate topical legal and tax matters with an important bearing on their businesses and advice processes. The individual must be adept at presenting, drafting articles and case studies, and facilitating round-table discussions.

Qualifications and Experience

BCom with HDip Tax Law or Master in Tax
Tax practitioner designation (TA(SA)) would be advantageous
Post Graduate Diplomas specialising in Certified Financial Planning (CFP), and/or Estate Planning would be advantageous
Technical tax advisory experience

Requirements

The ideal candidate should have:

Knowledge of legislative requirements and tax laws specific to unit trust/LISP, long-term insurance and retirement fund business
Knowledge of local and international tax reporting requirements e.g. FATCA/CRS, DWT, IWT and IT3
A go-getter attitude with a pragmatic approach to systems and processes
Experience working with financial advisers and components of the financial planning process would be preferable.

Critical Interpersonal or Interactive skills:

Ability to operate and think on feet;
Ability to deal effectively with people at all levels;
Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines and manage own deliveries;
Ability to exercise independent judgement and reasoning;
Ability to assess complex tax law and derive a meaning and practically apply it to the business;
Excellent documentation and communication skills;
Strong attention to detail