VAT Compliance Manager in London

Buzzacott is a passionately independent and rapidly growing professional services firm based in the City of London, with a satellite office in Hong Kong. Over 600 of us work co-operatively in specialist teams, making us the largest single office accountancy firm in the UK. We are partner led and focused on people – our team and our clients. We combine market leading sector expertise and excellent service capability to provide exceptional service in our chosen markets.

Our Fiscal Solutions team supports businesses that trade across Europe and beyond, helping them minimise their fiscal and administrative responsibilities in the countries where they operate. We are passionate about VAT compliance and supporting businesses grow their cross-border EU VAT trade.

This role sits within our onboarding team, which supports clients between the registration stages and the ongoing VAT compliance offerings. Our primary objective is to assist clients who are operating in new jurisdictions understand their VAT obligations. We need to quickly become specialists who understand the client’s business activity and educate them on the complex rules surrounding EU VAT compliance.

As a manager, you will be responsible for day-to-day technical work through to people management, offering lots of variety and opportunity to develop.

Duties and responsibilities:

• Providing support on calls with new clients for junior members of the team and providing constructive feedback.
• Reviewing internally generated resources prepared by the team and amending where necessary.
• Preparation of monthly update for management meetings.
• Co-ordinating with line report to ensure that tax office enquiries for the whole team are accurately recorded, risk assessed and answered within deadlines.
• Tracking profitability of all tax office enquiries for the team and recommending fees for wider team on ad hoc enquiries work.
• Regular 1-2-1s with line reports to monitor progress on technical understanding and identify training needs.
• Working with junior members of the team to help them meet compliance deadlines and tracking upcoming deadlines.
• Review of VAT returns in all jurisdictions.
• Reviewing changes to EU VAT compliance packs.
• Writing advisory reports for EU/UK/ROW VAT/GST.
• Attending calls with clients to understand advisory needs.

Skills and experience:

• Understanding of the EU VAT Directive and comfortable in referring to relevant national legislation.
• Understanding of key EU VAT topics including place of supply, liability to account, scope of VAT, chargeable event, when to account for VAT, reporting requirements.
• Passionate about solving technical and complex VAT issues.
• Navigate competing priorities and deadlines, with the ability to switch quickly between topics.
• Have a thorough knowledge of compliance in core jurisdictions; UK, FR, DE, NL and IE.
• Ability to explain complex matters in a clear and concise manner with excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Demonstrable management experience, with the ability to motivate and develop those around you.
• Ability to use MS Office suite, with intermediate Excel, Word, and Outlook. Basic PowerPoint and Publisher.
• Committed to developing the team by coaching and managing others so that they can reach their potential.
• A team-player, with great interpersonal skills and ability to build solid working relationships both internally and with clients.

At Buzzacott, we’re committed to equal opportunities and ensuring all employment decisions are fair, objective, and based on merit.