Associate Director-MA and International Tax

Department:  Tax

Designation:  Director

Reports to:    Functionally to Partner; may be independently responsible for clients and projects

Typical Experience/Qualifications:

Accounting (CA, ACCA, CPA) or Legal qualification, with at least 12 to 14 years of international corporate tax consulting experience

Job Role and Responsibilities:

• Takes independent responsibility for a part of the practice, at the same time consulting with the Partner on key issues, clients and decisions
• Understands the economic and fiscal situation of the market, globally, regionally as well as locally with a view to being able to partner with clients and become their business advisor, and with a view to identifying business opportunities for the practice as well as other functions of the Firm
• Actively undertakes business development with existing as well as new / potential clients with a view to generate projects and revenue for the tax practice and also for other functions of the firm
• Prepares as well as participates in proposals for tax projects and multifunctional projects including proposal strategy and development, pricing of the engagement, co-ordination with other parties for inputs into the proposal, interaction with clients during the entire proposal process
• Delivers high quality tax engagements that satisfy the client's requirements and match the KPMG quality standards
• Maintains ongoing relationships with a portfolio of clients at various levels including the CFO and Head of Tax
• Maintains ongoing relationships with other functions and network offices, as well as lawyers investment managers and other relevant external contact network
• Co-ordinates with other offices in a multi-office engagement, critical reviews inputs received from such offices, challenges the conclusions reached based on prior experience such that the overall deliverable to client is of high quality
• Is aware of and ensures that risk processes are adhered to at all times; consults internally and with the risk team for engagement and or client processes that deviate from the standard 
• Ensures that practice management is up-to-date at all times including prompt submission of timesheets, client files, billing, collection, WIP review, payouts to other offices, multi-firm engagement documentation and closure of engagements on the system
• Participate actively in the annual QPR process
• Participates actively in the budgeting process and business plan development for the practice and assists in regular monitoring
• Assists in the people plan including recruitment, on-boarding, mentoring
• Actively manages teams, including effective delegation, review of work, spread of work to different managers, training on the job and constructive regular feedback
• Undertakes performance manager role for team members reporting, ensures that the performance management cycle is completed effectively and in a timely manner
• Participates in developing formal training plans and implementation of the training plan for team members
• Acts as a mentor for team members, offers guidance and counseling as required
• Communicates regularly with the partner on client, people, risk and practice management aspects and seeks inputs on all key decisions and issues

Relevant skills and behaviors:

Core and technical skills

• Extensive knowledge and experience in international corporate tax including international holding structures, tax treaty network, fund structuring, tax policy and tax risk management; 
• Extensive knowledge and experience in M&A tax including tax due diligence, tax structuring for acquisitions and divestments, SPA support and post acquisition support work, 
• Practical knowledge of tax accounting, transfer pricing and International Executive Services related tax principles
• Basic awareness of VAT and other tax matter
• Strong business development, client relationship and client management skills, including ability to generate opportunities, follow up on leads and convert into proposals, convert proposals into work for the Firm
• Maintain relationships with key clients, potential clients, international network contacts, legal contacts etc. 
• Identify targets, prepare action plan for developing the client and implementation of the plan for successfully raising revenues for the firm, able to cross sell work of other functions
• Strong risk management knowledge and application including documentation, ability to escalate issues quickly to risk management specialists for resolution, incorporating risk management into work environment such that it is a part of the inherent process of engagement delivery
• Strong practice management skills including having in depth knowledge and experience of financials, debtors, key performance indicators including utilization, recovery, efficiency etc
• Strong platform skills and report writing skills including presentation skills, facilitation and training skills, review as well as write tax structure papers, tax opinions, M&A reports and tax analyses
• Strong project management skills including co-coordinating with multiple teams across various jurisdictions

Person Specifications

• Good academic record
• Excellent oral and written communication skills (report writing, presentations)
• Good interpersonal and teamwork skills and the ability to exert leadership qualities 

Linguistic Skills

• Fluent English – Verbal & written, Arabic skills are an added advantage