Assistant Manager/Manager (Tax Advisory, Stamp Duty Land Tax)

Introduction

The Saffery Champness Tax Advisory team is an expanding team which provides tax advice to its own clients and to clients of the firm nationally. Members of the team generally work directly with partners and clients on varied projects. The team currently contains Directors, Senior Managers and Managers.

Membership of the team offers good progression opportunities – three partners have been promoted from the team within the last three years – and the exposure to new clients and new projects means that there is a steep learning curve but members of the team develop a deep understanding of tax technical work.

The role

The role is to provide support to the specialist SDLT Partner and Senior Manager in the Tax Advisory team to provide Stamp Taxes advice to the firm as a whole and to assist in the growth of this service offering to the firm’s client base, and could also include involvement in wider direct or indirect taxation advice, depending on the individual’s experience. .

The individual would be responsible for supporting the specialist Stamp Taxes team in advising on a wide range of SDLT, LBTT, LTT and Stamp Duty tax cases for both individual and corporate clients in the private client sector.

At present we are looking for either a Manager or an Assistant Manager to join the team, although for the right individual we would consider a Qualified Senior.

The role is advisory only – Saffery Champness does not offer stamp taxes compliance services and the candidate would not be part of the personal or corporation tax self assessment teams.

The SDLT team is small and works closely together – we would expect that the successful candidate would benefit from working closely on projects with senior team members. Accordingly we would prefer the candidate to be willing to spend at least three days a week physically present in the London office, at least to begin with.

This role has arisen from the organic growth of the Stamp Taxes team over recent years and there are significant internal and external growth opportunities to explore, which the individual could be involved, however, business development experience is not a requirement.

Watch our video about careers in tax at Saffery Champness

The candidate

The individual will already have experience of working in Stamp Taxes in a firm with recognised tax capability. They must have strong technical skills in SDLT and other property taxes. In particular we would expect the candidate to have experience of SDLT/LBTT implications of MDR, mixed use rules, the HRAD/ADS charges, corporate restructuring, the partnerships rules and the anti-avoidance provisions as well as experience of filing returns.

We are looking for someone to specialise in Stamp Taxes in the longer term, however wider advisory experience including VAT, or direct tax advisory work will be helpful. They should have experience in dealing with one-off special assignments, report writing and advising on complicated tax technical areas. In addition, the candidate must be naturally collaborative, commercially minded, and self-motivated and have confidence in dealing with partners and clients, good organisation and interpersonal skills, and the ability to work under pressure.

Education and experience

Candidates should be educated to at least A level, ideally degree level and will have obtained a relevant professional qualification i.e. CTA/ACA/ICAS/ACCA. Outlook, Word and Excel skills are necessary. Previous experience of using tax return software (the firm uses CCH) is not required.

Salary/benefits

• 35-hour working week with flexibility around the core hours of 10am-4pm
• Working from home allowance of £25 a month.
• Eligibility for the firm’s Profit-Sharing Plan that runs from October to September each year. The scheme enables staff to share in the profits of the firm. Payment is usually c£1,000 for the full year. Paid in December.
• Eligibility for the discretionary bonus scheme. This is based on both individual performance and firm performance.
• Salary reviews annually in October.
• Twenty-five days annual leave
• In addition, under the flexible benefits programme, employees are entitled to buy or sell up to five days (35 hours) holiday a year, subject to staff partner approval.
• Six-month probationary period.
• Life assurance cover of four times salary,
• At Manager level you will be entitled to Private Medical – entitled to join on successful completion of probationary period
• At AM level- Private Medical – Staff have access to a private medical scheme through the flexible benefits programme.
• Contributory pension scheme (The firm will contribute 5% of salary on a matched basis with employee from their date of joining)
• Access to a number of additional benefits with preferential rates under the flexible benefit programme, health cash plans, health screening/GP support, critical illness cover, dental and travel insurance, Techscheme, Cyclescheme, Gymflex and a Workplace ISA.