​​​Introduction

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Value Added Tax (VAT) is a consumption tax that is applied to a wide range of goods and services. There are a wide range of rules and regulations both of a legal and compliance nature that organisations both large and small have to adhere to.

 

As such organisations whether large or small will require human capital to apply and comply with VAT legislation and file VAT returns to HMRC on a timely basis. 

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Working in Practice

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Accountancy practices come in different shapes and sizes and range from: 

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• The small self employed owner managed Practices that provide book keeping services (VAT, Payroll, Annual Accounts, Self Assessment, CIS) to small businesses 

• Franchised Practices such as Tax Assist or CerTax 

• Practices with 2-10 Partners that typically provide a range of accounting, Audit and Taxation services to small and medium sized businesses  

• Larger medium sized with 10 or more partners providing Taxation, Audit, Accounting and advisory services to medium sized entities

• Big 4 Accountancy Firms (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PWC that provide services to large Private Companies, Public companies such as banks, Private Equity Houses etc and services can range from Consultancy, Technology, Audit, Taxation, Accounting and more. 

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Typically working in practice involves providing services as listed above to external businesses for fees. Therefore normally an individual will commence their career as a junior (Graduate, School or college leaver) learning the ropes from more senior staff until eventually they receive an allocation of clients to manage.  As their knowledge, experience and skills improve, juniors can typically move up the hierarchy to Manager, Senior Manager, Director, Associate Partner, Partner or their equivalent.  As the fees billed are per hours worked, most accountants, tax specialists, technology specialist, Partners etc that work in Practice will be required to maintain and record their hours on time sheets to support the charging out (billing) to clients.

 

 

Working in Industry

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Working in industry is basically the other side of the coin where Accountants and Tax Advisors will look after the internal VAT compliance, VAT Accounting and VAT legal Advisory aspects of the businesses.  Basically VAT roles are usually split between VAT Compliance and VAT Advisory or a combination of both.  Also roles can be focused on different internal segments or divisions within an organisation.  For Example in a transport company you may have the Train Division and Bus Division or in Banking you may have an Investment Banking and Retail Banking division and as such the VAT rules and their application can be different depending on which area is being covered. 

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Typically VAT Specialists will spend time working on the following:

       

• Preparing and or reviewing internal company VAT and other related returns for submission to HMRC

• Managing VAT Risk and embedding controls

• Ensuring Accounts Payable processes are VAT compliant

• Ensuring the Process for Bad Debt Relief Recovery is sound

• Feeding in to Senior Accounting Officer risk meetings 

• VAT Accounting and VAT Recovery Forecasting

• Managing VAT Projects 

• Maintaining and building VAT Systems

• Advising Management on VAT,

• Advising client facing departments on billing VAT

• Advising Finance with VAT reporting

• Providing advice on Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)

• Advising on Intervention

• Reviewing Contracts

• Advising on Sourcing and Procurement to ensure VAT efficiency 

• Advising on Establishment & Fixed Establishment

• Advising on Securitisation

• Advising on Loan Syndication

• Registering and de-registering companies from VAT

• Creating VAT Groups 

• Advising on Business Disposals (TOGC) 

• Advising on international aspects of VAT

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Working in industry can mean working for Banks,  Food Companies, Retailers, Oil Companies, Car Manufacturers, Airport Operators, Train Companies, Energy providers and basically any corporate entity that's not Practice as described above. 

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As you can imagine from the duties and tasks typically performed above, VAT is a specialist area and requires a sound understanding and knowledge of UK VAT Law, EU VAT Law, Case Law, International VAT, compliance along with solid practical experience applying this to real life day to day transactions. The more knowledge you have and experience you gain in these areas, the more illuminated you will become in the VAT world which is actually a small specialist community.    

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Qualifications Required

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The following professional qualifications are usually requested for roles within VAT. ( However the list is not exhaustive) 

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• Chartered Institute of Taxation (CTA)

• Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT)

• Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA)  Institute of Chartered Accountants

• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)

• Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT)

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That said, it does not mean if you do not have one of these qualifications that you can't pursue a career in VAT.  Many VAT specialist gain their experience working for HMRC before moving into Practice or Industry. 

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List of Key Skills and Knowledge Required Regardless of Individual Professional Level 

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• Thorough understanding of UK VAT Law (VAT Act) and how it is applied to every day business transactions 

• Sound understanding of the VAT liability of various products and services.

• Applicable rates of VAT

• Good understanding of European VAT principles

• VAT and its impact on M&A Transactions

• VAT on Sourcing and Procurement

• Professionalism and Ethics  

• Good IT skills.  For example experience in using Excel, WORD, Power point, SAP, Sage, Zero, Alteryx etc. 

• Excellent Communication Skills 

• Ability to work under pressure 

• Being Analytical and having an eye for detail 

• Must be collaborative 

• Understand the importance of risk mitigation

• Have a continuous improvement mindset

• Emotionally Intelligent

• Understand the importance of diversity and its impact on business

• Good commercial awareness

• Ability to build and maintain key relationships

• Good understanding of VAT accounting and its impact on P&L

• Understanding of VAT Groups and Establishment Principles 

• Understanding of how billing systems work and applied VAT coding

• Good knowledge of and application of reverse charge VAT and its Impact on costs and P&L

• Knowledge of the Error Correction Notice and Protective Claim procedure.

• Partial Exemption Special Methods

• Property and Option To Tax

• Construction Industry Scheme (CIS)  

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Trainee / Analyst / Graduate - Entry Level

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At this level, the roles in VAT will normally be about learning and providing support to Managers / Assistant Vice Presidents and Senior Managers / Vice presidents.   

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You will be expected to rapidly grasp the basic fundamentals of VAT while studying for one of the qualifications listed above. 

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Some of the typical duties will include:  

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• Preparing or assisting in the preparation of VAT and other returns before further stage reviews

• Assisting with VAT administration, chasing responses and documenting various aspects relating to projects

• Investigating issues and problems and reporting on these to senior colleagues  

• Preparing procedure notes to document processes

• Preparing VAT journals for review and posting

• Helping out with the Annual Adjustment

• Capital Good Scheme analysis 

• Assisting in providing advisory support to internal business areas

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Manager / Assistant Vice President 

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At the Assistant Vice President level, you are more likely to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting. 

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Some of the typical duties will include:

   

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• Preparing and or reviewing VAT returns

• Providing advice to clients or internal stakeholders

• Preparing annual adjustments

• Assisting Senior Managers, Vice presidents and Directors on projects 

• Building and maintaining good relations with Finance and IT

• Assisting accounts payable and receivable in relation to VAT coding

• Capital Good Scheme preparation

• Option to Tax 

• Advising on reverse charges and its application

• Ensuring VAT is being correctly coded or booked in systems

• Oversight of VAT Accounting

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Senior Manager / Vice President

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The Senior Manager / Vice president / Associate Director level brings with it significantly more ownership of processes and overall responsibility of particular business areas to ensure the accuracy of VAT and other Returns and the mitigation of risk.  Also will be the first point of call for client and internal advisory support.  

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Some of the typical duties will include:

 

• Reviewing VAT and other returns to ensure their accuracy 

• Reviewing Annual Adjustments

• Annual review of Partial Exemption Special Method (PESM)

• Ensuring that control failures are documented, fixed and monitored 

• Reviewing and signing off of VAT accounts  

• Assisting accounts payable and receivable in relation to VAT coding

• Capital Good Scheme preparation or review

• Advising clients on M&A, Intervention, securitisation, Invoicing, Financing etc.

• PESM modelling / redraft

• Keeping up to date with legislation and preparing impact assessments

• Inter-company transactions and VAT impact

• Managing projects

• Managing junior staff

• Mentoring, Training and coaching Junior staff    

• Making Tax Digital implementation and review

• Thorough understanding of systems

• Preparing reports for senior management

• Liaising with HMRC to resolve queries

• Managing internal and external audits

• Managing VAT reporting

 

Director

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Directors typically have large VAT teams to manage on either the compliance or advisory side or can be the overall Head of VAT. 

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At this level, most of the time will be spent overseeing the team and ensuring it is working towards the stated annual objectives. 

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Some of the typical duties will include:

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• Setting  the VAT objectives for the organisation 

• Reporting to the CFO or Head of Tax and keeping them updated with events

• Advising on VAT aspects of M&A and Intervention

• Advising on Global E Invoicing Implementation Requirements

• Advising on the set up of new branches and establishments  

• Planning and overseeing internal / HMRC Partial Exemption Special Method Reviews

• Holding regular meetings with HMRC to update them on business changes, new product areas etc.

• Overall review and sign-off of VAT and other returns 

• Mentoring, Training and coaching the team

• Having regular catch-ups with key clients

• Having regular catch ups with external consultants and attending industry events

• Overall responsibility for risk and controls and ensuring they are operating correctly

• Liaising with internal and external auditors to plan and coordinate timings and understand scope of audits etc.

• Overall responsibility for ensuring new products and services have been reviewed for VAT, documented and signed off.         

• Overall responsibility for ensuring the digitalisation of VAT.

• Keeping up to date with Legislation and ensuring that changes are filtered down and implemented. 

• Ensuring that VAT is being budgeted for on costs and all significant VAT risks are reflected in the P&L

• Chairing regular Team meetings

• Ensuring that clients are engaged and happy and dealing with any complaints promptly and robustly

• Ensuring that a strong risk culture is embedded in the team 

• Dealing with staff recruitment

• Arranging regular training for the Team 

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