Specialist: Legal Delivery at The South African Revenue Service (SARS)

About the Position

SARS is looking for a dynamic individual, competent, self-driven, with integrity and discretion who is result driven with sound Legal background.  He/she should be an admitted attorney / advocate and possess excellent legal research, dispute resolution and litigation skills, be willing to learn, possess excellent negotiation and drafting skills and must be willing to thrive in a busy and demanding work environment. He/she must be a team player with good listening skills, respect ideas and aim to improve the product or process at hand.  He/she must also be capable of executing his/her duties with enthusiasm and a good comprehension of the law as well as a capability within SARS to achieve its strategic intent of Voluntary Compliance by making it easy for compliant taxpayers and traders, hard & costly for non-compliant taxpayers & traders.

Job Purpose

To direct, control and manage litigation cases and tax disputes which are significant or complex and provide expert legal advice & support in the development of new projects, policies or operational initiatives, participate in governance committees and be responsible for training and mentoring of the team.

Education and Experience

Minimum Qualification & Experience Required

• BA Law / LLB  Degree and 8-10 years experience in  Litigation and dispute resolution of which 3-4 years ideally at operational specialist level
• Admitted Attorney or Advocate
• Senior Certificate and 15 years experience in Litigation and dispute resolution
• Admitted Attorney or Advocate

Job Outputs:

Process

• Identify tax and customs loopholes and potential risk and recommend legal interventions in an effort to close the tax gap.
• Finalise legal matters by identifying facts, accessing relevant sources, analysis, application, advice and implementation of the course of action.
• Analyse and make recommendations about improvements to specialist systems, procedures and associated area's practice.
• Contribute to the optimum utilisation of org. resources, advising on effective planning and development of area of specialisation resource plans.
• Develop a single practice area in alignment with operational activity and procedural frameworks and ensure tactical implementation.
• Draw on own technical or professional expertise, knowledge & experience to identify & recommend tactical solutions to defined problems in practices.
• Integrate business information, compare, analyse & produce reports to identify trends, discrepancies & inconsistencies for decision making purposes.
• Optimise goal achievement through tactical strategy implementation and optimisation of practises, processes & systems across an internal value chain.
• Plan for value-added, continuous practice & system improvements to deliver on objectives to enhance tactical implementation and excellence.
• Proactively identify interconnected problems, determine its impact and use to develop best fit alternatives; best practice implementation solutions.
• Translate top down policy in relation to own practice area and communicate impact to relevant stakeholders.
• Recommend changes to optimise processes, systems, practice area and associated procedures and execute the implementation of change and innovation.

Governance

• Develop and/or align governance and compliance policies for own practice area to identify and manage risk exposure liability.

People

• Provide specialist know-how, support, advice and practice thought leadership in area of expertise.
• Integrate new knowledge and transfer skills attained through formal and informal learning opportunities in the execution of your job.

Finance

• Implement and monitor financial control, management of costs and corporate governance in area of specialisation

Client

• Develop & ensure implementation of a practice that builds service delivery excellence & encourage others to provide exceptional stakeholder service.
• Participate in the specialist practice community and contribute positively to organisation knowledge management.
• Provide authoritative, specialist expertise and advice to internal and external stakeholders.

Behavioural competencies

• Expertise in context
• Honesty and Integrity
• Trust
• Respect
• Problem solving and analysis
• Fairness and Transparency
• Analytical Thinking
• Accountability
• Conceptual Ability
• Adaptability
• Persuasion ability
• External Awareness
• Attention to detail
• Organisational awareness
• Building Sustainability