Senior Associate - Direct Tax - Advisory Firm (1-5 yrs)

Role & responsibilities: Leading assignments in advisory, litigation and compliance for IFSC and international clients from GIFT City location.

Project Management:

- Advice on classification, valuation, the applicability of taxes on transactions and admissibility to tax benefits/exemptions.

- Providing innovative but rigorous tax planning ideas (Tax Reviews / Health Checks /Due Diligence Reviews).

- Undertaking comprehensive reviews of business operations to identify tax planning opportunities as well as compliance gaps. Administer all corporate tax processes and compliance, including corporate tax, transfer pricing, financials related certifications, fringe benefit tax, withholding tax etc.

- Lead and coordinate the tax planning and tax management of assignments, with guidance from the Partner and manage risk and compliance issues on client engagements.

- Planning & strategizing approach for litigation and exploring novel ways to resolve tax disputes of clients. Innovating & enhancing processes to achieve commercial targets effective.

- Researching estimated service cost & man hours required for project prior to pitching. Drafting & presenting proposals to clients with guidance of Partners.

- Building commercial substance in the current process & procedure and constantly innovating and improvising on the processes & plans for closing assignments

- Appearances and arguments before adjudication and appellate authorities up to the Tribunal. Develop and maintain an effective working relationship with the tax authorities, relevant members of the business and functional teams, other members of the local tax and international tax teams and external service providers

Client Management & Business Development:

- Proactively communicating, responding and sharing updates & development of assignment on a regular basis with clients.

- Be the central point of contact and liaise with your client stakeholders, Managers, local stakeholders and the team.

- Proactively developing and maintaining relationships with CFOs and Tax Directors, thereby creating a high-quality professional network. Demonstrating professionalism by working within legal and regulatory guidelines while remaining independent and objective at all times.

- Identifying leads from public & private sources and constantly evaluating feasibility of new opportunities. Sharing new potential client database with Partners for review and guidance.

- Supporting partners to prepare pitch proposals for client meetings.

A/C Mining/Revenue:

- Identifying new business opportunities in existing clients by keenly keeping track of developments at the client end, tax arena and overall industry trends.

- Building credibility and delivering high quality solutions while building rapport with client and key stakeholders to ensure repeat business.

Knowledge Management:

- Understanding the tax compliance landscape and ideate how technology can be used, internally (by tax professionals in the firm) and externally (by industry clients) to make the compliance process more effective - simpler, speedier and qualitatively superior.

- Acquiring industry insights to improvise on current services. Developing content for networking in external events & seminars.

- Sharing knowledge acquired from external forums with team members. Regularly update Knowledge management database with new updates.

Brand Management:

- Representing & endorsing firm's expertise and scope of service at various external forums. Interacting with peers and building a high-quality network in the industry.

- Publishing articles& research papers on regular basis. Sharing knowledge and learning at external forums to increase visibility and credibility.

People Management:

- Providing guidance to the team Facts/Issues/Tech inputs/Industry practice/ etc, proactively to enable them to deliver on assignments.

- Identifying and pointing out challenges so that they can be overcome quickly with solutions and supporting them to resolve challenges/ conflicts.

- Connecting with team on regular basis to ensure the assignment is closed within agreed TAT. Tracking team performance & sharing continuous feedback. Assessing individual and team performance on closure of the assignment and sharing feedback and learnings with team.

- Creating a learning environment and encouraging people to leverage each other's strengths and deliver high quality, consistent performance.

Preferred candidate profile:

- CA with 1 to 5 years of experience in direct tax practice.

- LLB and or CS would be an added advantage.

- Candidates residing in Ahmedabad / Gandhi Nagar will be preferred.

- Passion to work in tax and regulatory field. Good understanding of tax and regulatory laws in India.

- Good command over MS Excel - can use formulas and comfortable with computations

- Strong interpersonal skills (ability to liaise at all levels). Ability to communicate and interact with clients

- An energetic and innovative individual with entrepreneurial attitude and strong business acumen.

- Financial analysis and modelling skills with excellent knowledge of data analysis and forecasting methods.

- Stress resilient with ability to handle multiple simultaneous priorities

- Ability to work cooperatively as well as independently under pressure with close attention to detail.

- Excellent planning and organizational skills with the ability to successfully adapt to changing priorities.

Innovation & Problem Solving:

Generating new ideas, challenging assumptions to create new solutions that create significant value for client and firm Framing and analyzing problems deeply to create solutions with long term perspective.

Firm Building:

Striving to improve the firm's image, offerings and overall performance. It demands organizational commitment and blending of visionary thought with pragmatism and perseverance to meet and balance the client's and firm's needs. Institutionalizing values, practices, processes, policies, developing capability and culture to create the platform for firm development.

Building Biz:

Committed to think about the ongoing and evolving needs of the firm, learning how new and different solutions can be leveraged to move the organization forward and monetized into revenue. Entrepreneurial mindset in creating new opportunities where none exist. Systematically deepening accounts and creating desired value positioning for creating steady and sustainable business performance.

Continuous Learning & Expertise Building:

Committed to think about the ongoing and evolving levels of expertise and perspective required to cater to changing client and industry requirements. Driven to consistently expand technical knowledge, distribute work-related knowledge to others in order to help the firm stay ahead of the curve.

Nurturing Relationships:

Working to build and maintain warm and strategic relationships or networks with people who are part of the firm's immediate and extended circle. Helping everyone in experiencing the "Firm way" and thereby create long lasting, trusted and mutually beneficial relationships.

Developing Others:

Developing Others involves a genuine intent to foster the long-term learning or development of others through coaching, managing performance and mentoring. Entrusting responsibility to others as per their strength, performance and development needs, and keeping track of accomplishments. It plays a key role in creating leadership pipeline to fuel the firm's aspirations.