Tax Manager

Employment Type: Full-time

This position is client focused and requires excellent communication and leadership skills. This position requires teamwork with other tax and accounting professionals to complete tasks. Duties are performed at a professional level with attention towards the delivery of professional services that creates value for clients and opportunity for team members.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree in accounting, finance or other finance related field

CPA license

Technical and leadership experience

7-12 years of experience

Specific Responsibilities

Review tax returns

Corporate

Partnerships

Individuals

Trusts and Estates

Gift Tax

Private Foundations

Tax planning and projections

Year-end tax projections

Analyze tax planning strategies and present to clients

Research

Research and support tax return positions

Research and develop tax planning strategies

Manage staff

Staff assignments

Training

Manage projects

Project scheduling

Due date tracking

Client relationships

Develop and maintain client relationships

Bridge gap between clients and staff and clients and partners

General Expectations

Develop processes and procedures – Assist in developing processes and procedures to maintain high standard of quality and efficiency including quality control processes to avoid and catch mistakes. It is critical that a manager is committed to established processes and procedures and will not ignore them due to time pressures. A manager needs to make sure staff understands procedures and are applying them correctly. Although we have made considerable effort to develop processes and procedures to drive quality, efficiency and consistency, we recognize they are always a work-in-process. A manager is expected to continually strive to develop new processes and improve existing procedures.

Communication – Communication is critical in a small firm. There is no reason for clients or partners to be uninformed. We work for our clients and they should never be taken for granted. The manner of communication is also important. Clients need to be made aware that we are working toward their best interest and are concerned about their financial well being. Equally important is communication with staff. A manager is often the bridge between staff and clients or partners.

Project quality and completeness – Our clients rely on us to have a high standard of quality and to be thorough. Although we don’t make decisions for our clients, we must communicate options and associated benefits/risks and adequately document and support positions taken. A tax return is not complete if positions are not documented in our files. Often we have to assist clients with taking the correct actions necessary to support a desired outcome. Our clients depend on us to make sure those positions are documented to withstand scrutiny.

Client ready – When a manager has completed a project, it should be “client ready”. Tax returns, whether processed or not, and other projects should be ready to go to the client before a project is forward to a partner for final review (which is often just a cursory review).

Organization – A manager needs to be well organized. When a task, email, document, client question, etc. is forwarded to a manager from a partner (or directly from a client), the partners need to have confidence that it will be handled appropriately. Information should be correctly filed, projects set up in Practice and tasks timely completed without repeated follow up. Questions should be addressed timely and effectively. Adequate notes should be taken and retained.

Lead by example – A manager should be a leader bridging the gap between staff and the partners. Although a manager cannot always achieve the desired results from staff by only leading by example, they must still lead by example. They should be following procedures and have a good attitude toward policies. They should be managing projects, helping staff prioritize and looking ahead to avoid unforeseen issues.

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