Senior Specialist | Retail Finance | Tax (8387) at Allan Gray Proprietary Limited

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.