Description
Established in the region for 40 years, PwC has around 8,000 people in 12 countries across the region: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, the Palestinian territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Our regional team operates across the Middle East bringing international experience delivered within the context of the region and its culture. We can bring the collective knowledge and experience of more than 328,000 people across the entire global PwC network in advisory, assurance and tax to help you find the value you are looking for.
Job Description & Summary
The Firm Tax team is a part of the PwC Middle East Group’s OneFinance function. The team supports on all levels of the firm’s tax activity and is organized into three (3) subfunctions: Compliance & Audit; Governance & Risk; and Legal & Tax Advisory. This role is intended to support the Compliance & Audit subfunction. The ME Firm Tax Compliance & Audit Senior Associate’s role is for a tax accountant who is responsible for handling tax activities for the PwC ME Group entities under the supervision of the ME Firm Tax Compliance & Audit (Subfunction) Lead and working together with the wider Firm Tax team as well as finance tax specialists across the ME region.
The main focus of the tax accountant is to support the Compliance & Audit subfunction in all tax compliance and audit related matters for the region. This includes optimising PwC’s tax position, minimising tax leakage, managing tax risks, and understanding the tax implications of cross border transactions and the business operating model.
Specifically, this will require data collection, validation and preparation of various tax compliance and reporting requirements across the region. Activities and responsibility will include: preparation of corporate income tax, withholding tax (WHT) and value added tax (VAT) returns; preparation of responses to tax authority audits and inquiries; responding to tax related questions posed by other internal firm services (IFS) functions as well as, at times, client facing (Line of Service (LoS)) teams on tax issues encountered in their day to day operations.
Primary duties and responsibilities Compliance
- Prepare corporate income tax returns for the PwC ME Group entities for review by the Firm Tax Compliance & Audit (subfunction) Lead, ensuring submission deadlines are adhered to.
- Prepare WHT returns for the PwC ME Group entities for review by the Firm Tax Compliance & Audit (subfunction) Lead, 3 of ensuring submission deadlines are adhered to.
- Prepare VAT returns for the PwC ME Group entities for review by the Firm Tax Compliance & Audit (subfunction) Lead, ensuring submission deadlines are adhered to.
- Reconcile tax to statutory accounts.
- Reconcile and validate accounts and accounting entries as required (including payroll taxes, customs and excise duties, stamp duty, etc).
- Deliver internal analysis/reports to Firm Tax Compliance & Audit (subfunction) Lead, flagging key risks, exposures etc., as well as tax opportunities.
- Works with the wider Firm Tax team and local Tax LoS Specialists to understand tax laws and regulations in various jurisdictions within the Middle East.
- Responsible for guiding transactions within the wider OneFinance team to optimise the management of tax liabilities.
Audit
- Provide inputs for all tax audits conducted by Firm Tax/Global Team/External Auditors.
Other
- Organize and conduct special analysis as required.
- Assist with effective tax training and appropriate support for the business.
- Consolidate, analyse and challenge tax report inputs from LoS/local teams/other finance teams as appropriate.
- Be actively involved in business development activities to help identify and solve complex tax challenges.
- Refine tax policy and procedure documentation and ensure proper implementation and adherence across the ME Group.
- Develop strong working relationships and interface with all stakeholders across the ME Group.
- Be actively involved in and a positive influence on team recruiting, development, training and retention.
Learning & Growth
- Forms part of both the local finance community, regional tax community as well as global tax experts’ community, and maintains appropriate relationships across the tax spectrum.
- Has the capabilities to deliver responsibilities efficiently.
- Captures templates and standards into a repository to build the team's own knowledge management database.
- Ensures adherence to policies and procedures.
- Responsible for the continuing professional development of self.
- Support internal knowledge management best practices, creating communities of practice both within your own team and across the wider function.
- Act as a key tax resource and liaison to the Firm Tax Team and where relevant to other areas of the business, building cross-functional relationships as needed.
Knowledge, skills, and abilities Education
- Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Law or a related field required.
- Certified Tax Accountant, Certified Practicing Accountant or similar.
Language
- Bi-lingual English/Arabic. Fluency in written and spoken English & Arabic.
Overall Experience
- 3+ years of tax experience.
- Previous experience with corporate tax, withholding tax, VAT and payroll is required.
- An understanding of other taxes would be an advantage.
Specific Experience
- Must have tax corporate income tax accounting and compliance experience.
- Experience in the Professional Services industry in a top tier (Big 4) firm would be an advantage.
Knowledge and Skills
- Understanding of general/international accounting standards and practices.
- High level of analytical and quantitative ability required to perform complex financial and transactional tax and accounting functions and ad hoc reporting functions, including proficiency with computer based modelling and analytic techniques.
- Ability to adhere to procedures, controls and policies for functional areas of responsibility.
- Organization, thoroughness, eye for detail, time management skills and proactivity required.
- Excellent people management skills required.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills required to effectively work with professional resources in accounting areas.
- Ethical conduct.
For further information, and to apply, please visit our website via the “Apply” button below.
