Partnership Accountant- (tax and accounting) Law Firm

Working for one of the leading global law firms.

DEPARTMENT DESCRIPTION

The Tax & Partner Matters team deals with financial and tax matters relating to partners’ financial involvement in the firm. The high-profile team provides support to the firm's senior management on partner-related finance issues, partnership tax compliance and tax planning.

ROLE OVERVIEW

The Tax Accountant has primary responsibility for maintaining and reconciling the firm’s tax and partners’ tax accounts. This involves ensuring tax payments and tax reserve calculations are calculated and accurately recorded in the accounting system, are up-to-date and are reconciled on a timely basis. The Tax Accountant also will work collaboratively with the Partner Matters Accounts Assistant in relation to payments to partners, and accounting for various partner related transactions.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES / ACCOUNTABILITIES

• To ensure that the following are accurate, on time, correctly recorded and fully reconciled in the general ledger system (3E) the individual will be responsible for carrying out the following:

o Partner and firm tax payments (eg payment of partner compensation, partner income tax and corporate tax payments).

o Formulaic tax reserve calculations and ledger postings (eg responsible for the calculations based on partner compensation, postings in the general ledger and periodic reconciliations);

o Current year tax reserves reconciliations (eg the process of reviewing the partners reserves for the accounting year, the tax that has paid from those reserves and explaining and gaining comfort on the balances due to the partners);

In addition, the Tax Accountant will:

• Liaise with key stakeholders across the firm, including with partners regarding their compensation and tax balances, the Group Financial Director, non-UK based finance colleagues and members of senior management
• Work together with the Partner Matters Accounts Assistant to prepare the monthly drawings, quarterly distribution, and bi-annual bonus payment processes, including calculation of amounts due to partners, accurate collection of disbursements from partners, ensuring accurate and timely sending of statements to individual partners
• Prepare key spreadsheets required by the team throughout the year for example the accounts matrix and the allocation matrix.
• Responsible for reconciliations of several years’ historical ledger entries in relation to partner compensation and tax, preparing notes and liaising with the Senior Accountant and the Senior Tax Manager to discuss ways to deal with these historic balances, including preparing the necessary journals and postings accordingly
• Working with the Senior Accountant and the Partner Matters Accounts Assistant to simplify data collection and calculation tools in Excel for the preparation of partners/ monthly drawings, quarterly distributions, bi-annual bonus payments and tax reserve releases
• Request and sort the firm’s financial data needed for tax computation preparation and upload this into the firm’s tax analysis software
• Work to create efficiencies in data capture, analytics, and presentation in relation to partners’ financial matters with the firm as part of the department’s technology transformation
• Participate in ad hoc projects and assist as required with all aspects of the department's work
• Ongoing review, simplification and documentation of the department's procedures in relation to all the above.

• Assisting the Taxation Team with recording tax transactions (including tax payments, tax provisions, external advisers' fees, etc) in Elite 3E as required.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

QUALIFICATIONS AND TRAINING

• Qualified accountant - ICAEW, ICAS or ACCA preferred.
• A good working knowledge of Microsoft Office, Excel in particular is essential.
• Experience of 3E or similar accounting software.

THE CANDIDATE

• Analytical ability - dealing with complex problems and large amounts of data.
• Communication skills - explaining technical issues clearly, both orally and in writing, to colleagues in finance, partners, and external advisers.
• Organisational ability - prioritising tasks to meet deadlines.
• Attention to detail - ensuring work is prepared to a high standard.
• Initiative - anticipating issues and identifying improvements to processes and procedures.
• Tact and diplomacy - dealing appropriately with sensitive personal data relating to Partners.