Tax Manager

Please Note: The deadline for applying is 23.59 the day before the job posting end date.

Job Title: Senior Tax Manager

Location: Kingston Head Office

Work-Level: 2C

Hiring Manager: Annita Franich

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 3.4 billion consumers a day. Unilever has more than 400 brands found in homes around the world, including Persil, CIF, Dove, Sure, Lynx, Knorr, Hellmann’s, and Marmite, along with many new Prestige brands acquired over the past decade. Unilever’s strategy begins with a purpose that places consumers at the heart of everything we do: Brighten Everyday Life For All.

JOB PURPOSE

The UK and Ireland Tax Senior Manager will support the Tax Director together with one other Senior manager and a manager on all activities related to corporation tax matters for Unilever’s UK and Irish companies, including Unilever Plc. The role is a tax business partner role which involves building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders around the business with responsibility and accountability for a share of UK and Ireland compliance.

Compliance work operates under an operating model whereby tax processes are performed across the local tax team, the tax data analysis support team in Bangalore and outsourced service providers (Big 4) combined.  Much of the non-judgemental tax data analysis work is undertaken by the team in Bangalore, with the UK tax team overlaying the tax technical judgements, whilst also managing and reviewing the work conducted by the outsourced service providers. 

The role requires the ability to manage and deliver multiple workstreams across varying timelines, working within the UK and Ireland tax team.  Some of these workstreams include quarterly tax reporting; overseeing tax compliance undertaken by outsource service providers; preparing or reviewing tax technical pieces of work outside the scope of the outsourced service provider; tax forecasting; compliance and liaison with HMRC on non-standard matters; interaction with international Unilever tax colleagues on international issues involving the UK.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Corporation tax business partnering

• Build and maintain relationships with cross functional stakeholders (finance teams, other internal tax teams, legal, company secretarial, third-party outsourcers etc);
• Lead and/or collaborate with finance and project teams on various tax and commercial projects, such as legal entity rationalisation, cross border restructuring, and post-acquisition integration of businesses;
• Support the Tax Director with the HMRC relationship and be involved both formal and informal enquiries as required;
• Assist on the resolution of ad hoc queries and day-to-day issues raised by the business and provide relevant, practical advice promptly;
• Stay updated on latest UK and global tax developments, share expertise with the UK and Ireland tax team, and as required with the Unilever global tax function;
• Support the Tax Director with UK tax inputs for various international projects;
• Conduct PE risk reviews and implement appropriate mitigation measures;
• Identify and as required lead projects to optimise Unilever ETR.

Corporation tax compliance and reporting

• Preparation of Group quarterly tax provision calculations using Longview;
• Review local statutory accounts tax disclosures prepared by the outsourced provider;
• Oversee the preparation of the annual tax computations and returns by outsourced provider for multiple group companies;
• Lead the preparation of out-of-scope work feeding into the tax computations such as chargeable gains calculations and SSE analysis, deductibility of expenditure, RDEC and patent box calculations, and any necessary transfer pricing adjustments;
• Analyse the UK group’s corporate interest restriction position and forecast future impact, including being involved in projects to manage this;

• Perform the CFC review with support of the outsourced provider;
• Oversee and validate the data collection for annual TP documentation local files and review report output prepared by third party outsourcer;
• Support the Tax Director with the SAO review and controls;
• Consider the UK group’s WHT obligations and oversee the WHT and DTT administrative compliance.

UK and Ireland Group Tax Data

• Manage the Group Payment Arrangement and calculate corporation tax payments on account. Monitor and update the tax payment database. Liaise with HMRC and ROS on company tax balances, repayments, reallocations and any ad hoc queries.
• Calculate and prepare journals for annual prior year adjustments, along with charges for payment of group relief.
• Perform quarterly ETR forecasting calculations and manage cash tax forecasts, as requested by various stakeholders in the business.
• Perform tax balance sheet reviews to ensure prior year adjustments, payments to HMRC and charges for group relief are reflected correctly in each entity’s balance sheet.

Key working relationships

Internal

• Finance – based in Kingston, London and India
• Tax – Global Tax department and Tax Leadership Team
• UniOps (FOT) – based in India
• Company Secretarial – based in London and Spain
• Legal – based in Kingston and London
• Treasury – Global team

External

• Accountancy Firms (project management, audit queries, compliance outsourcing)
• HMRC
• Competent Authorities

ALL ABOUT YOU

Skills/ Experience/ Qualifications:

Required

• UK qualified accountant (ACA/CA or equivalent)
• 10+ years’ experience in UK corporate tax either in a UK corporate tax department or UK firm of Big 4 consultancy
• Strategic thinking
• Analytical skills
• Strong tax accounting understanding (IFRS and FRS 101)
• Controls mindset, including risk management
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent time and project management skills, including a strong bias for action
• Experience with managing HMRC interactions
• Relationship building and stakeholder management skills

NOTES

Please apply via this portal as e-mail applications may not be processed and include your Future Fit Plan if possible.

By applying for this vacancy, you are confirming that you have made your Line Manager aware of your application and that you are at a point in your career with Unilever where it is appropriate for you to be applying for other positions.   

Should you require additional information or reasonable adjustments to allow you to present your best self during this process, please contact your Talent Partner Chris Carr on chris.carr@unilever.com

What we offer

Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all. 

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. We are also more than happy to provide reasonable adjustments during our application and interview process to enable you to be present your best self. To find out more, including about our Employee Resource Groups, please click here Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (unilever.com).

Location

In June 2020 we announced our plan to consolidate a number of Unilever’s offices across the South East of England into a new Unilever campus in Kingston-upon-Thames in or around early 2025. However, on the 08 August 2024 we announced to our existing staff our proposal to retain our central Head Office in London, 100 Victoria Embankment (“100VE”) until our lease expires in 2027. As a result of this new proposal, we will be consulting with our existing staff, and new joiners who join during this period of consultation at 100VE, on the proposal made in August 2024. During consultation we will clarify the future location of each team and function. This means your role will either be based in 100VE until 2027 or in Kingston-Upon-Thames from early 2025. As we are yet to commence consultation on the proposal you agree, until such a time when consultation has concluded, your normal place of work as set out in the enclosed Statement of Terms & Conditions will be 100VE. You agree that on the conclusion of the consultation your place of work will be 100VE or 100VE until early 2025 and then Kingston-upon-Thames ("the locations") and you will be notified of which of the locations will be your place of work after that consultation ends.

Relocation to the UK

Please be aware if you are applying for this role from outside the UK, if successful, your application will be treated as a self-initiated Change Location Outside of Country (CLOC) transfer. This means any relocation costs must be self-funded with the potential to reclaim some specific pre-approved expenses up to £5,000. Please speak to your Talent Partner if you have any questions.