Tax Lead

Job Purpose

• Lead all aspects of tax compliance, providing guidance on amendments to the tax law, and being the focal point for all tax assessments, enquiries and on all engagements with the Tax Authorities ensuring adherence to tax regulations, optimizing tax returns, and solving complex tax-related issues. Design and implement tax policies and strategies that includes driving tax policy competency and consistency across all finance departments to ensure tax regulation compliance with relevant statutes and regulatory codes and tax treatment is following joint venture (JV) specific foundation agreements.

Key Job Accountabilities - I

• Lead all tax enquiries and assessment that involves overseeing the development and presentation of technical arguments for adopted tax positions considering applicable tax regulation and foundation agreements. Lead the tax objection and appeal process, developing robust technical arguments for adopted tax positions whilst maintaining effective communication channels with tax authorities to ensure risk of tax penalties is minimised, and resolve issues promptly.

• Oversee and ensure compliance with all applicable tax regulation across various jurisdictions and specific tax clauses in the respective venture specific foundation agreements, closing gaps with appropriate policy and procedure updates to achieve minimal tax exposure.  Lead the transfer pricing process, ensuring proper disclosure of all related party transactions and in compliance with relevant tax regulations.

• Lead the review all tax returns for all JV companies in conjunction with the respective venture controller and external tax compliance advisor that involve financial data analysis and development of strategies to identify opportunities for tax optimisation and legally minimize tax liabilities. Drive thorough review, focusing on tax treatment of critical areas i.e., provisions, prior period adjustments, directors’ fees etc, to ensure treatment is aligned prior to submitting to GTA.

• Develop and regularly maintain tax policy and procedures, ensuring clear and comprehensive documentation that accurately reflects current tax regulations and aligns with venture specific requirements.

• Advise and guide on deferred tax treatment on complex transactions such as impairments, decommissioning, forex, determining whether the natures of the transactions are permanent or temporary. Support deferred tax treatment during interactions with statutory auditors.

Key Job Accountabilities - II

• Advise and guide on the tax impact of complex accounting transactions and new commercial arrangements in a pragmatic and business-oriented approach, offering comprehensive insights on the tax consequences and considering the holistic impact on stakeholders and the organisation. Present outcomes to key stakeholders and lead the collaboration with respective finance functions to bed down resulting process changes and ensure tax considerations are integrated into the commercial business decision process.

• Lead all aspects of VAT compliance, including the preparation and filing of VAT returns, and coordinate timely reporting to QatarEnergy for group filing purposes. Oversee the development and implementation of VAT policy and procedures in compliance with VAT law.

• Lead all VAT enquiries and assessments, including supporting QatarEnergy on group assessments to ensure accurate and timely responses and  provide adequate basis of queried VAT treatments. Foster a culture of VAT compliance that is institutionalized throughout the organisation, delivering education sessions, implementing best practices, and emphasizing its importance to mitigate the risk of fines and penalties.

• Oversee the review of changes in tax regulation, including offering insights on their core impact to the Company, and developing and presenting strategic impact assessments to relevant stakeholders, ensuring that business practices are proactively aligned with the evolving regulatory environment.

• Lead the collaboration with IT department, providing inputs into system development to enhance and ensure the system landscape is robust from a tax perspective. Oversee the thorough consideration for tax transactions, taking the lead in User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for tax related processes to ensure accuracy and robustness of tax-related functionalities within the system.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting.

• Internationally recognised professional accounting qualification (CPA, ACA, ACCA, CIMA, etc.) is mandatory.

• Internationally recognised tax qualification is preferable.

Knowledge and/or Experience - I

• 10 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, of which 3 years are in supervisory roles in tax compliance.

• Strong knowledge of tax regulations specific to oil and gas companies.